"The War" against mythical journalists who resell their samples on eBay

UPDATE: An unhappy Dan Klores PR person has emailed me about this story, telling me — tongue in cheek, I hope — that "We will make sure in the future to exclude you from all the materials we have since you obviously would prefer not to get them." I've added the whole email, and my response, to the end of today's TV Barn Podcast, which just happens to be about "The War."

It has been eight years — going back to the very first days of TV Barn — since I have seen any evidence that any TV critic has attempted to sell the free samples s/he receives from media corporations. But you'd never know it from the cone of paranoia that has been lowered over us by the industry.

Here's a notable example, and not just because they sent it to the wrong guy: Sony Legacy Recordings is releasing a soundtrack CD to Ken Burns' upcoming megafilm "The War," the opening salvo of what is expected to be a full-on barrage of marketing and merchandising related to the biggest PBS production in years.

My copy arrived with personalization on both the jewel case and the CD itself.  The jacket contained this stern warning: This promotional CD is Watermarked and therefore is unique and traceable. The Copyright Owner is able to monitor its use and identify the source of any unauthorized copies. The Copyright Owner will take appropriate action in respect of any misuse of promotional CD releases.

Unfortunately, whoever at the production house was charged with mailing these personalized screeners out to critics lost track of where s/he was in the list. And thus, if you click on the picture you will see that I have in my possession the CD intended for Brooks Barnes of the Wall Street Journal ... the guy one before me in alphabetical order on the canonical list of what Lisa D calls The Reporters Who Cover Television (TRWCT).

So you'll be seeing that copy on eBay later today.  Hey, it ain't my scalp!

Seriously, I know it's part of the corporate mindset to distrust journalists, but this is ridiculous. For one thing, our employers frown on reselling of screeners, or (in the Star's case) even giving them away. At many places it's a fireable offense. So why the paranoia? I'm guessing it's because it's just easier to throw us in the watermarking pool with all the freelancers, marketing people and network employees who may or may not be hawking these things online. But again, in most cases it's a fireable offense for those people to resell swag, too.

This may seem like inside baseball (and minor league baseball to boot), but I think it points to a larger issue — the industry's contention that Internet piracy costs them "billions" in unrealized revenue. I've always found the counter-argument more persuasive: that actual piracy is minimal, and that what the companies actually want to monetize is the sharing of content that's been going on since Victrola days. Watermarking is just a pesky weed growing out from that, and while it's not exactly crimping my lifestyle, it's still obnoxious.

• Related TV Barn Podcast on "The War"
• Earlier: Tom Brokaw talks to me about Ken Burns and "The War"

Comments

[Dave]

Mr. Barnhart,
Kinda more "inside baseball" but... are you familiar with the "broadcast flag"and "D/A" legislation?
In 2009 when analog broadcasting "goes dark" - we are promised a set top box to make our "old" TVs usable.
Are they going to LICENSE these?
Under proposed laws - what these set top boxes would DO - would be ILLEGAL!

[Capital Cat]

Of course TV critics are hawking their wares on eBay. I found them right beside Saddam's weapons of mass destruction and the contents of Al Capone's vault!

[Gael Cooper]

Hi Aaron! This made me crack open my soundtrack sample to check it, and mine's got my name on it. So apparently by the time the mailer-outer got to the "C" section, he or she had caught up.

Dave — I'm familiar with broadcast flag. But please email me to keep this subject on topic, thanks.

[Tom W]

The "threat" isn't resale of the CD to one person on eBay, it's converting the soundtrack to mp3 and uploading the tracks to a torrent site where tens of thousands (or more) will share the music before it's available for sale. Of course, several hours after an album is available on iTunes, it's also available as a torrent. Watermarking refers to putting identifying information on digital music files made from the CD, not just the CD label.

[ak]

Thanks Aaron for the interesting story. I found it especially amusing since DK sent me not one but two full DVD sets of the 14.5 hour Burns movie. They are no tags that I've been able to find. Of course, I would neither sell nor give them away, but it's odd that they would be so concerned about a soundtrack as to mark it, no?

[Aaron]

I just think if you're determined to do something like that, you have software that will flatten watermarks like so much origami. Or use a capture program like Audio Hijack to make pristine copies sans watermarks.

But again, the implication is that we're part of the problem. We're not. We tell people go buy or go watch this. And we tell networks when content of theirs is so terrible I wouldn't waste 10 minutes, let alone 10 dollars on it.

Ergo, we're part of the solution.

[Dave]

It's interesting how much time and effort they are putting into these watermarks. For example - if you have the screener of the new Sarah Conner Chronicles pilot you can find one of the hidden watermarks in a brief shot of a bullet ridden windshield (during the school shooting scene). To imbed this number digitally in this one shot must have cost some money.

[Todd Elkins]

Wow, incredible. These are PR professionals who are acting like this? Who do they think we are going to side with? The faceless, corporate-side of Hollywood, or our local TV reporter/blogger?

If we are the public in public TV, then they are TV industry in public TV. The desire for control and the lack of respect for freedom in the media is incredible.

Keep up the good work, Aaron.

[ironicslip]

Fact is, yes, the problem is folks, even insiders at studios, who leak the material prior to a release date. As you are aware the release date is "sacred" to the industry and while the release windows in the movie space are now being promoted in tandem (cable, box office, dvd, whatever) -- not exactly -- all music, except for long sellers accrue over 90% oif sales within the first 10 days to 2 weeks after release. So, don't share the copy... You don't own the music any more than you own the software used to create your articles and there has always been a problem with the sales of promo/cut-outs/books without covers/ etc. Kinda simple! Get over it.

[Tom W]

What does PBS or the production company get from sending out CDs of music from the series, with not only orders not to share the music, but an implicit accusation that the recipient is a thief? They must want a recommendation from the critic, assuming they're not trying to buy good reviews. Here's an alternative strategy. Send an mp3 of one cut out. If this were the Civil War series, it would be the Ashokan Farewell violin theme being played over the reading of a letter from an officer to his wife. Hearing that would have sold that series better than any critic's column. Now, make that song/musical piece (for The War) a free download on iTunes and encourage TV critics, TV bloggers, WWII enthusiasts, and anybody else to share the piece with their readers and social networks. Add the information of when the album will be on sale. Now nobody's accused of being a thief and millions of people will have a taste for the upcoming series.

[Mark Jeffries]

And if it's what the Chief played at the top of his podcast, it would be a Norah Jones song, meaning that at least it would get adult contemporary, AAA and "smooth jazz" airplay, which is more than can be said for "Ashokan Farewell."

[Patrick Baker]

I can see how you guys in the trade must find this insulting, however, i guess these people are just trying to protect their content.
chances are it is not you the journos that they are trying to bluff its the backyard/consumer pirate start up that they are trying to deter and/or bluff with a bit of science - we all know they cant stop someone who is a pro or who really puts their mind to it
Remember, they have families to feed to and they have to do their best to protect their income

[Laptop]

Wow, incredible. These are PR professionals who are acting like this? Who do they think we are going to side with? The faceless, corporate-side of Hollywood, or our local TV reporter/blogger?

[theresa k.]

aaron - back in the not-that-old music television days, there was "a guy" who would come around to the music television networks and buy from all of us on various record company mailing lists ALL the promo cd's that we got every day. these are the very same cd's that you can buy at used record/cd stores and guess what? this is where they come from!!! i think that's where many of us got our play money. each week, we'd get 10-20 new releases. if there was 1-2 we liked, that was a good week. what are you going to do with the rest of those cd's? i don't have that many candles! (cd's make great "coasters" for those big fat pillar candles)
anyway - your great post today makes me wonder if "the guy" is still able to troll the music television hallways and pay folks for their rejected and unwanted cd's.
we ARE part of the solution. and to think i used to work at PBS, and thought we (PBS) were part of the solution.