Xbox One Media app + mkv support = promoting piracy?
One person wrote an article and suddenly everyone is reproducing the content all over the place. And it isn't even a strong argument.
Basically, the argument is that by including mkv support (which is supposedly a popular format for pirated videos) that Xbox One is supporting pirated media (indirectly). While I generally tend to respect the views of the person who published the original article, this is one case where I have to disagree.
Let's start with the simplest means of debunking this. Simply allowing non-DRM media to be run on the console is the first and ONLY barrier that needs to come down. Free and paid applications exists to convert from one format to another. So, claiming the support or one DRM-less file format is more permissive to piracy than another is pretty weak.
Secondly, even though mkv may be the most popular... it isn't so popular that any given pirated movie/show can't be acquired in another supported format. Mp4 and avi are still fairly prolific formats along with quick time and a few others.
Implying support for mkv supports pirating implies not only that this existence of the app will drive a greater demand for pirated media (increased downloads) and that the increase will be substantively tied to the inclusion of this specific format. Clearly the first statement cannot be observed until the app is widely available and even it would be difficult to prove the cause of any increase or decline, and I think it would be wildly absurd that to conclude people downloading pirated media pay enough attention on a wide enough scale that the format itself would lend substantively to any change in the trends in prated media.
I have a degree in computer science and have worked with people and there computers for longer than most. At 31, I've been working with computers for 26 years and I've been helping others with them since I was 12 (so 19 years). People have frequently complained about the inability to play certain audio or video files on their computer, and not only do they not notice that the extension is commonly the culprit... when I explain the cause to them it means nothing... they simply go and download the video from another site and hope for a different result (often leaving the one in the format they can't play lying around on the hard drive). [Historically it would be people who didn't want to install quick time, back when you needed the QT app to play them, hence the lack of helping them find a codec in the example BTW.]
Odds are most people fall into this boat. They will download movie X and try to play it on the Xbox. If it doesn't work they either simply watch it on the computer, or downloaded it a few more times from other links until finding one that works. Format means nothing to the average person.
And on that note, if mkv is such a popular format for pirated media, it is probably also a popular format in general. Refusing to support a media format which is popular simply because it also happens to be popular amongst those pirating media would be a quick means of destroying value in such an offering. And what is popular today is by no means what will continue to be popular. It was just a few years ago that I had dig around the internet to find a codec capable of supporting mkv files since avi and mp4 were the popular formats of the day.
Lastly, lets face it... most external DRM-free media is going to be pirated media regardless of the file format. Maybe I have some pictures or home videos which aren't in sky drive or are a format which can't be played from there. But aside from slide shows on USB, most people want to play media from a thumb drive or external drive because their pirated movies and TV shows look a lot nicer on the big screen TV than their tablet or laptop.
Effectively, my counter argument would have to be twofold. Supporting any DRM-less media format is encouraging piracy, at least indirectly and the prime motivation (from the consumer perspective) for an app that supports any DRM-less media format from external drive is to play pirated media in the first place. Including a support for a format popular amongst media pirates is really just assurance your solution is relevant.
If MS has released this app without it and it ended up being important... when Sony finally woke up and implemented its competing feature they would support it.
Basically, the argument is that by including mkv support (which is supposedly a popular format for pirated videos) that Xbox One is supporting pirated media (indirectly). While I generally tend to respect the views of the person who published the original article, this is one case where I have to disagree.
Let's start with the simplest means of debunking this. Simply allowing non-DRM media to be run on the console is the first and ONLY barrier that needs to come down. Free and paid applications exists to convert from one format to another. So, claiming the support or one DRM-less file format is more permissive to piracy than another is pretty weak.
Secondly, even though mkv may be the most popular... it isn't so popular that any given pirated movie/show can't be acquired in another supported format. Mp4 and avi are still fairly prolific formats along with quick time and a few others.
Implying support for mkv supports pirating implies not only that this existence of the app will drive a greater demand for pirated media (increased downloads) and that the increase will be substantively tied to the inclusion of this specific format. Clearly the first statement cannot be observed until the app is widely available and even it would be difficult to prove the cause of any increase or decline, and I think it would be wildly absurd that to conclude people downloading pirated media pay enough attention on a wide enough scale that the format itself would lend substantively to any change in the trends in prated media.
I have a degree in computer science and have worked with people and there computers for longer than most. At 31, I've been working with computers for 26 years and I've been helping others with them since I was 12 (so 19 years). People have frequently complained about the inability to play certain audio or video files on their computer, and not only do they not notice that the extension is commonly the culprit... when I explain the cause to them it means nothing... they simply go and download the video from another site and hope for a different result (often leaving the one in the format they can't play lying around on the hard drive). [Historically it would be people who didn't want to install quick time, back when you needed the QT app to play them, hence the lack of helping them find a codec in the example BTW.]
Odds are most people fall into this boat. They will download movie X and try to play it on the Xbox. If it doesn't work they either simply watch it on the computer, or downloaded it a few more times from other links until finding one that works. Format means nothing to the average person.
And on that note, if mkv is such a popular format for pirated media, it is probably also a popular format in general. Refusing to support a media format which is popular simply because it also happens to be popular amongst those pirating media would be a quick means of destroying value in such an offering. And what is popular today is by no means what will continue to be popular. It was just a few years ago that I had dig around the internet to find a codec capable of supporting mkv files since avi and mp4 were the popular formats of the day.
Lastly, lets face it... most external DRM-free media is going to be pirated media regardless of the file format. Maybe I have some pictures or home videos which aren't in sky drive or are a format which can't be played from there. But aside from slide shows on USB, most people want to play media from a thumb drive or external drive because their pirated movies and TV shows look a lot nicer on the big screen TV than their tablet or laptop.
Effectively, my counter argument would have to be twofold. Supporting any DRM-less media format is encouraging piracy, at least indirectly and the prime motivation (from the consumer perspective) for an app that supports any DRM-less media format from external drive is to play pirated media in the first place. Including a support for a format popular amongst media pirates is really just assurance your solution is relevant.
If MS has released this app without it and it ended up being important... when Sony finally woke up and implemented its competing feature they would support it.
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