#profiteering

[dispatchesfromtheclasswar]

"If you think the fare evader, the shoplifter, and the welfare cheat are your enemies but you ignore the price gouger and the profiteer, you've been had." -John Clarke

[porterdavis]

[fauxfickle]

I've been thinking a bit about animatronicswarehouse, Aaron Fetcher, and the ethics of putting rare or lost media behind a paywall. Last month, animatronicwarehouse launched a subscription service in which for $30 a month you can receive rare prints of CEI characters and shows. This is quite similar to Aaron Fetcher's premium video service where for $65 you have access to private videos of Aaron's current projects, old CEI show footage, stories, or just general updates. Aaron's service is pretty notorious for being needlessly complex for subscribers and easy for "thieves" to just screen record.

What really gets me though is the wealth of lost/rare footage sitting there collecting dust. Many of the digitized films from CEI's earliest shows sit behind a paywall. I wouldn't be as frustrated if premium subscribers received videos a month or two earlier than people watching the main channel to make both parties happy, however it seems that many won't be released for quite some time, will only have very short samples posted to lure more people to the premium service, or worst case, not seen at all.

Back to animatronicwarehouse. I'm concerned that this new service will become very similar to Aaron's service, albeit much less bloated. AW already knows Aaron, I mean, they did a good amount of work together to create one of, if not THE best RAE shows. They seem close and I'm worried that he'll start taking cues from Aaron. Yesterday he announced that he's selling posters of rare, high quality images of CEI shows that are presented as a must-have collector's item. Now, I don't really have a problem with this. My and other people's complaints start with the price. Most posters cost $120 with the most expensive costing $195 for a poster of the RAE that looks extremely similar to one that can easily be found on showbizpizza.com. You can also buy a $150 picture of the Hard Luck Bears that can be found online as well.

AW's Poster vs Photo posted by Hourly Rock a-fire Explosion (@HourlyRock) on twitter

As an advocate for archiving all forms of media for future generations, I cringe a little every time I see a rare photo with a huge watermark and blur on it or footage cut off and interrupted with a plug for a subscription service. It feels exploitive to make profit off the rarity of something, especially in a fandom where most people weren't alive when these early animatronics were up and running and can only recapture that magic through photos and video. Part of the reason animatronics are still popular is because new generations can look back at them or find current operating ones. I've seen people in YouTube comment sections from countries that never had Showbiz Pizzas or Chuck E. Cheese and yet they can enjoy it because videos and photos allow them to interact and enjoy these things. If we put the past behind a paywall, what will we have to discuss in the future?

[nando161mando]

Only an ally when there’s a profit to be made 😑

https://www.hackthissite.org/

[notwiselybuttoowell]

Disaster capitalism has taken many forms in different contexts. In New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, there was an immediate move to replace public schools with charter schools, and to bulldoze public housing projects to make way for gentrifying townhouses. In Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in 2017, the public schools were once again under siege, and there was a push to privatize the electricity grid before the storm had made landfall. In Thailand and Sri Lanka after the 2004 tsunami, valuable beachfront land, previously stewarded by small-scale fishers and farmers, was seized by real estate developers while their rightful occupants were stuck in evacuation camps.

It’s always a little different, which is why some Native Hawaiians have taken to calling their unique version by a slightly different term: plantation disaster capitalism. It’s a name that speaks to contemporary forms of neocolonialism and climate profiteering, like the real estate agents who have been cold-calling Lahaina residents who have lost everything to the fire and prodding them to sell their ancestral lands rather than wait for compensation. But it also places these moves inside the long and ongoing history of settler colonial resource theft and trickery, making clear that while disaster capitalism might have some modern disguises, it’s a very old tactic. A tactic that Native Hawaiians have a great deal of experience resisting.

[panicinthestudio]

"What the oil industry doesn’t want you to know", July 25, 2024

Uncover the oil industry’s decades-long campaign to discredit climate change science regarding the danger of fossil fuels. -- Throughout the 1980s, oil industry reps discussed the dangers of burning fossil fuels, acknowledging the risk their product posed to the future of humanity. However, instead of warning the public or pivoting towards renewable energy sources, they doubled down on oil — and launched a decades-long campaign to discredit climate change science. Stephanie Honchell Smith digs into Big Oil's tactics. Lesson by Stephanie Honchell Smith, directed by Sofia Pashaei. TED-Ed

[thelandofbritain]

Good to see that our privatised railways are performing well for the rich private shareholders... they're certainly not much good at providing a decent and affordable rail service for the rest of the population.

Typical Tory stitch-up of an essential public service, so that it pays their wealthy shareholder cronies and party donors, but milks the taxpayers and users dry.

Of course, when the private franchised operators go into the red and fail, it's the taxpayers who bail out the business, not the profiteering shareholders who've been taking fat dividends for years.

The CEOs still get paid obscene salaries and bonuses as a reward for failure, of course. That's how corrupt and cynical Tory 'free market' capitalism works... heads they win, tails we lose.

[immaculatasknight]

Give them the fear of God

[sniperct]

landlords and grocery stores getting caught price fixing and I'm wondering how long before we find out officially that the fast food chains are also price fixing.

Cuz its pretty obvious to me.

[porterdavis]

[theinconvenientlifestyle]

[misforgotten2]

You lose - We profit - Suckers

Life - July 26th 1948

[nando161mando]

Why should taxpayers subsidize Walmart’s record breaking profits?

[millionmovieproject]

[thelandofbritain]

Corrupt profiteering builders, corrupt profiteering landlords, corrupt Tory government, bankrupt and exploitative Tory policies...

...at a time when we have a national shortage of affordable homes to rent or buy.

Scandalous and criminal.