Father of DVD Gets Bitter Reward 435
Ant writes "MSNBC has a
Newsweek article on Warren Lieberfarb, the father of DVD, transformed the movie business. And yet his reward was he was fired."
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Father of DVD Gets Bitter Reward
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He has not acquired a fortune; the fortune has acquired him. -- Bion
Galileo (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Galileo (Score:5, Interesting)
This guy wasn't fired because he was smart. He was fired because the company knew that they had shortchanged him and they didn't want him hanging around to hassle them about it. He was exploited and, when he demanded fair compensation, he was shown the door.
Re:Galileo (Score:3, Insightful)
--
11 Gmail invitations availiable [retailretreat.com]
Re:Galileo (Score:5, Funny)
It just sucks when you get the short end of the stick.
And it's not particularly flattering where they put it either.
Re:Galileo (Score:5, Insightful)
An interesting concept for unfair compensation
Read it again. (Score:5, Informative)
They gave him stock, which they then rendered worthless with poor business decisions.
Re:Read it again. (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't really understand why someone would think they deserve more from their employer than their salary, unless its spelled out that they will get bonuses or whatever for great ideas.
It is kind of a "chilling effect" not to pay bonuses to your idea folks, but that's the risk companies take... Those folks could just go on and form another company with their new idea, instead.
Re:Read it again. (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, he accepted stock options, which became nearly worthless when the stock plummetted. The downside to options is they expire, and most bonus packages that are issued as options have an exercise clause that forces the former employee to exercise them or lose them (I don't know if his did or not).
What I don't understand is, he took a gamble that the options were going to be worth a whole lot more later. If the AOL-TW merger was a smashing success and his options were worth $1.6 billion, would he return the excess to the company? He took a risk in his bonus and lost. He could have just as easily (according to the article), accepted $25 million in cash.
Re:Read it again. (Score:5, Interesting)
Agreed.
During the tech boom, like thousands of others I was offered a decent salary and large number of stock options to leave my current job and move into a new company.
I accepted the offer. In the end, after stock splits, acquisitions/mergers, delays, blahblah the stock options weren't worth much. I was a bit surprised but then again I was naive. I'd do the same again: taking a certain degree of risks tends to increase opportunity from my experience. It wasn't a Bad Thing at all either: I gained so much from that job, including a great deal of respect from work colleagues, management and other people in IT.
Getting paid in options is a gamble and I doubt this guy has any more of a legal leg to stand on than anyone else. Some dude told him "I'm gonna make you rich". Heh, same here. Bad luck. That's life.
Cheers
Stor
He sounds like quite the pain to deal with (Score:5, Insightful)
While he worked his butt off and managed to get people to come together on the standard, he was compensated rather nicely. To the tune of several million dollars -- over $100M at one point.
I do not understand why anyone thinks they are "owed" when the lose their shirt gambling on the stock market. The only way he's got a claim is if he was prevented from selling the stock when he wanted to. Otherwise he's just another formerly rich dot-bomb victim, the same as a few million other people.
The only difference is he had direct control over $100M+ of stock, not a few thousand dollars in a "retirement plan" like most dot-bomb victims.
It seems he was raising hell throughout the company over his losses, blaming the company for the damage the stock value took after the merger. Again, if he had the option of selling his shares before the merger, he has no cause for complaint.
Regardless of whether he has a legitimite claim (because he wasn't allowed to sell his stocks), you just don't get issues resolved by ranting and raving throughout the company and making an overly public stink about it. You pick the key individuals who can provide resolution and badger them, not badmouth everyone who doesn't help you immediately.
If you make it as messy as he appears to have been doing, you get fired. Period. Any company, any nation, and industry. Nobody wants to keep an employee who spends their time bitterly complaining about how they're being abused, threatening to sue, or otherwise making it abundantly clear they don't want to work there.
I sympathize and think he deserved more at the end of the day, but did not handle the issue correctly. At worst, he should have initiated a quiet lawsuit for his damages instead of ranting.
Re:He sounds like quite the pain to deal with (Score:5, Interesting)
I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't restrictinos either either, but things like this are often 'negotiated' as part of termination settlements. 'You don't sue us, we give you $100M in stock, but you can't sell it for a year.'.
Re:He sounds like quite the pain to deal with (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Galileo (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Galileo (Score:5, Informative)
Word facts (Score:5, Interesting)
Often new words are formed by using roots from a single language, often either Greek or Latin in the West. Mixing Greek and Latin is often viewed as bad form. When I see mixed constructions, I most often find that the person either is kidding or never learned such a fine point. It is not a significant failing not to know, but my ears certainly perk when I hear someone reveal how subtle his or her sensitivity to language is by speaking well. It is only so impressive when someone does it without calling attention to it. My rambling assumes that I know enough myself to notice, and I doubtless do not in many cases.
"Heliocentric" definitely is the common word. The "-centric" prefix, according to Merriam-Webster, is Latin, as is "sol." Kentron is a Greek word. It appears to me that the relevant suffix from either Latin or Greek is "-centric," but all the fairly common words I found with this suffix are built from Greek.
I am not a linguist. I just like words.
Re:Galileo (Score:5, Funny)
Need more caffeine or something (at 8:45pm).
ah.. no (Score:3, Interesting)
The church did create the first public observatory.
Re:ah.. no (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Galileo (Score:5, Interesting)
There's a differnce being persecuted for nobly insisting on scientific truth, and being persecuted because you flamed the local absolute ruler in an era where freedom of speech was a concept yet to be invented.
He wasn't fired... (Score:5, Funny)
He wasn't fired... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:He wasn't fired... (Score:5, Funny)
Hakui's fit a form factor.
That has no timing.
Re:He wasn't fired... (Score:5, Funny)
Apostrophe s
makes possessive, not plural
except it's (it is).
I would fire him too... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I would fire him too... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I would fire him too... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I would fire him too... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I would fire him too... (Score:5, Informative)
Microsoft Anti-trust (for Government)
Bush v. Gore (for Gore)
SCO v. everyone (for SCO)
Napster (for Napster)
These are some pretty high profile cases, but you'll notice taht he lost two of the major ones, and looks like he is going to lose another w/ SCO. Maybe with all the controversial cases the guy is taking (like Bush v. Gore, and the SCO cases) maybe we'll see the guy go away, or at least charged with malpractice.
This is potentially off topic, however, since we are seeing a lot of David Boise in other areas, it might explain why we aren't seeing him too much in the SCO suit. Just with his choice of mercenary, it makes you wonder about the legitimacy of this guys case.
Hmmm (Score:5, Funny)
No News (Score:4, Insightful)
>More important, he saw its potential to transform the industry.
Who invented the DVD technology? That's the news for nerds.
$10M (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:$10M (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:That's the difference between you (and him)... (Score:3, Insightful)
Suuurrre you would! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:That's the difference between you (and him)... (Score:3, Insightful)
It irritates me even more when someone like Bill Gates or some incredibly weathly celebirty donats something like a few tens of thousand to someone or a charity.
You really didn't do your homework with regards to Bill Gates. So far he's given away money in the 10s of billions [gatesfoundation.org] to the Gates foundation, which among other things is trying to vaccinate people in Africa against various diseases. Like him or dislike him, but don't put him in with the money hoarders.
Re:That's the difference between you (and him)... (Score:3, Interesting)
Apparently the IRS agrees wi [suntimes.com]
Re:That's the difference between you (and him)... (Score:5, Informative)
Interesting point, but your example could be better. Bill Gates has actually given $23 Billion [usatoday.com] to charity, more than half of his worth.
My guess would be that the majority of what's left of his fortune is tied up in Microsoft stock, and by keeping it invested, he's left the door open to making even bigger charitable donations in future.
Still, the point is almost certainly true for other rich people as well.
Re:That's the difference between you (and him)... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:$10M (Score:4, Funny)
And, while tweaking mr. Gates may be fun its not germane to this case. Mr. Lieberfarb, managed to achieve quite abit of good for time warner, recieved recompense, things didnt go quite as he felt they should, and then he made a grab for power and was smacked down. If he had of been in the court of a european monarchy instead of corporate america he would likely have been beheaded for treason. Instead he recieves 10 million in severance and is told to bother time warner no more.
If that isn't progress I don't know what is
good quote (Score:5, Insightful)
- In the future, will there be a place for a "hard" medium that you can touch and store on your shelves? Lieberfarb believes that answer is no. "The future will see video on demand delivered over the Internet, and movies will be just one of the offerings,'' he says.
So the "father of the DVD" is predicting its demise. ("Father" is maybe less appropriate than "midwife" -- he didn't invent anything, he just convinced the industry bigwigs to adopt it...)I don't buy that... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I don't buy that... (Score:2)
Don't forget the technical limitations. You'd need about half a T3 to get reliable DVD-quality video and audio streaming. That's probably going to take at least ten years to drop to a reasonable price.
Re:I don't buy that... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I don't buy that... (Score:5, Insightful)
Even now that DVDs are relatively cheap to buy, there's not a whole lot I want to watch more than once. I'd rather pay a dollar every now and then to watch an episode of 'Futurama' on demand than have to buy the whole series.
Do people really watch the entire '24' series on DVD?
Re:I don't buy that... (Score:5, Insightful)
By contrast, when you pay to buy a movie [i.e. on DVD], you're paying to own a copy of something. In other words, when you buy a DVD [or parallel product, i.e. CD] you're paying for a good.
So there it is: the key economic distinction between goods and services is that in the former case, you're expected to leave with a new product, while in the latter case you expect only to be treated in a certain manner.
Re:I don't buy that... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I don't buy that... (Score:3, Insightful)
You, sir, are why America will fall like the Roman empire.
Re:I don't buy that... (Score:3, Insightful)
The first series was fantastic and very well written. Especially the way each episode presented the viewer (through Jack Bauer) with a very real ethical problem. Jack engaged in quite a bit of unethical conduct, but who amongst us wouldn't be tempted to do the same given the circumstances and the time constraints placed upon Jack. Hot chix, too
Q. Would you h
Re:I don't buy that... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I don't buy that... (Score:3, Insightful)
I disagree. Look at music. People are forking over almost the same for albums on iTunes as they do in Wal*Mart. For that, they get a lower quality product, but gain value in convenience.
Anyone I know who has borrowed/bought/been lent a pirat
Re:I don't buy that... (Score:3, Interesting)
With iTunes Music Store, you purchase the right to listen to those bits as many times as you want without paying again, and to commit them to a more permanent media than your hard drive. That's a very different thing.
Re:good quote (Score:5, Insightful)
Jokes aside, there are lots of reasons to fire someone. Maybe he's just a prima donna and management was sick of him walking up to chicks in the office saying "I'm the father of the DVD don't ya know". Maybe he just smells bad or jerks off in his cubicle to often. It's not like management said "This guy made us a billion dollars, fire him quick!".
Re:good quote (Score:5, Insightful)
this is how industry works (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:this is how industry works (Score:3, Insightful)
Let's be clear here -- 20% of your salary, not 20% of the revenue generated from your oil field.
That kind of inequity is exactly why I quit working for a big high-priced computer company and went independent. Why should any of us settle for an infitesimal piece of the pie when with a little entreprenurial spirit we can get 50% or more? Worked well for me, after a couple of years of doing exactly the same kind of w
Re:this is how industry works (Score:5, Insightful)
That kind of inequity is exactly why I quit working for a big high-priced computer company and went independent. Why should any of us settle for an infitesimal piece of the pie when with a little entreprenurial spirit we can get 50% or more?
This kind of comment is why IT workers probably should avoid making remarks on other industries...
You can't go out and discover a new major oil field by yourself. Very few individuals do their own seismic surveys as a hobby. Even fewer can launch satellites themselves. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure I can't front the costs to drill exploratory wells miles deep while floating in hundreds of feet of water.
You want to get 20% of the profit from a new oil field? Put twenty or thirty or a hundred million dollars on the line. Then we'll talk.
Gee (Score:5, Informative)
I'd be curious to hear what kind of case he's going to make. I don't believe there's any principle that if you make an important enough contribution the company has to ignore your generally being a prick, and pleading for Steve Case and Richard Parsons to give you your stock value back seems like begging to your poker buddies after they clean you out.
Re:Gee (Score:5, Insightful)
Tell me a story about a guy making 50 grand a year who gets fired after demonstrably improving his company and I'll feel something. In this case, all I can think to say is this: "Congratulations on realizing the American dream and then whining about it."
PS- I would note that I was pretty early into the DVD scene and was a big fan of Time Warner for jumping headlong into the format giving me quite a bit of content, and many times more than other studios at the same time. So I'll offer my thanks to Mr. Lieberfarb for being instrumental in that process, and will also offer the hope that the door doesn't hit him in the ass on the way out and break the shell of his huge nest egg.
Better name for this guy (Score:5, Funny)
Welcome... (Score:3, Funny)
Does he realize Consumers, get tired of repurchase (Score:2, Insightful)
I feel like Tommy Lee Jones in MIB I, when he says, he'll have to buy the White Album again.
Once the Industry has bled DvD for all it's worth, then we might seea bulk move to the newest, standards. Whichever they turn out to be.
Heh... (Score:5, Interesting)
Doesn't that say it all? Yo, music industry!
But hey, if we're making assloads of money the way we do things now, why risk something new?
A Hiidden Moral (Score:5, Insightful)
I believe that the first test of a truly great man is his humility. I do not mean by humility, doubt of his own powers. But really great men have a curious feeling that the greatness is not in them, but through them. And they see something divine in every other man and are endlessly, foolishly, incredibly merciful.
John Ruskin
Shoulda played computer games (Score:3, Funny)
One MAJOR factual error! (Score:3, Informative)
One can only guess what else in this Newsweek article is wrong!
Re:One MAJOR factual error! (Score:4, Informative)
The man higher up (Score:4, Insightful)
What about the poor shmoes who actually got the vershugginer thing to work who had to deal with this guy and probably got outsourced or lost their jobs due to the Time/Warner/AOL stock scam - I mean bubble...?
Tears and violins (Score:5, Interesting)
how sad. (Score:4, Funny)
Oh yeah. How ever will he get along with only $10 million.
(/sarcasm)
How companies treat visionaries (Score:5, Insightful)
Not really. They didnt treat him any differently than they treat anyone else: with utter contempt.
I love this: (Score:5, Insightful)
my god, what a genius. If can give them something better, with the right price, people will buy it.
People where allready collecting videos like books.
Of course, his real accomplishment was to get everyone to agree on it.
Privately Owned Hards Disks to go? (Score:5, Interesting)
In the future, will there be a place for a "hard" medium that you can touch and store on your shelves? Lieberfarb believes that answer is no. "The future will see video on demand delivered over the Internet, and movies will be just one of the offerings," he says.
Can anyone else see the possibility of large hard disks (or their equivalent newer tech) becoming more difficult to buy retail? The googles and 'distributors' of the world will have bulk deals directly with the manufacturers, the majority will watch 'on demand' and the nerd/geek minority will have to pay more as hard disks are no longer a 'consumer item'. Copyright interests would no doubt see this as improvement, as 'average Joes' would lose the ability to store stuff themselves, having to 'pay per view'.
Thoughts anyone? Will there be a mainstream application that will require privately owned data storage, keeping data storage as a consumer item?
Hard to feel sorry for this guy (Score:5, Interesting)
He took the options (Score:4, Insightful)
Geeks unite (Score:3, Funny)
And if we cant bring him justice then send him copies of your pr0n to keep him busy.
Obligatory Simpsons quote (Score:5, Interesting)
As Homer is walking through a landfill:
Hard to feel sorry for him (Score:3, Insightful)
Secondly, he was senior management and had the people skills of a caveman. Do we want to feel sorry for bad managers who get fired? Taking sympathy to a whole new and undeserving level.
Quantity question. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Quantity question. (Score:3, Funny)
There's Options, and There's Options (Score:5, Informative)
1: If they gave him the options, but didn't vest them (he can't actually exercise them until they're vested, a gottcha with most options) then there was nothing he could do, short of sabotaging the TW-AOL merger, to protect their value. If that's the case, then TW-AOL should be reamed royally with a rusty post-hole digger. He's still dumb for not demanding immediate vesting, but TW-AOL was screwing him from the beginning with this vesting crap.
2: If his options were vested, and he didn't exercise them before the crash^H^H^H^H^H slide in value, then he screwed himself for not paying attention and/or the greed of thinking they'd be worth even more if he only waitied a little longer. Sorry Charlie, but you don't have a case for that.
Of course the article doesn't clarify the point above. It's ever so much more inflamitory to say he once had options worth $135M (which was no such thing if he couldn't exercise them) and eventually had to settle for a $10M severence -- which is more than I'm going to make this month.
If the guy is good, then he's employable. He's already working again for several top companies. Don't get out the violins for him yet.
Dance with the Corporate Devil (Score:5, Informative)
First, let's put things into perspective here: Lieberfarb is a salesman; nothing more, nothing less. He didn't make the DVD and he sure as heck isn't the father. THAT person is probably stuck in a lab somewhere getting a bigger shaft in this end of the deal than Lieberfarb on his worst day. What's more, Lieberwhatever got happily accepted his huge-ass bonus on top of his regular pay: Time Warner stock options once worth as much as $135 million. He obviously accepted it, so whose fault is it that he didn't cash out in time?? Uh-huh. It's the stock market, so accept the risks already. On top of that, he gets a cool 10M in severence. Why aren't I feeling sorry for this guy???
"Say Boss, I know I accepted that 135m in stock options and all, but I didn't cash out on time, so how about giving me lots more money it its place...?"
From every angle I look at this, it sounds like Lieberwhatsit nailed his own damn coffin. From pissing people off to letting himself get talked into unwise financial decision. And while I know corporations can be meat factories, you just don't off and fire somebody who made you tons of money unless he's being a serious ass in most cases.
This guy ain't the poor lackey under the thumb of a giant coporate comglomorate here as is being skewed here. He painted the pentagram on his forehead, danced with the demons and got his reward, promptly screwing himself over in the process. Judgement is for the defendant; One soul please.
Popularity of DVDs is still a mystery to me (Score:3, Interesting)
Same with home theater. Back in 1983, There was a store down the road from where I live called "Future Tech" that was the inspiration to all us Northern Virginia nerds at the time -- half Atari home computers and half home theater (before that term was coined). In the back was a room plastered with foam sound panels, a 10 foot diagonal Kloss front-projection screen, LaserDisc, and surround sound. It wasn't that different than a DVD/big screen/surround setup of today.
Due to still being in school, it wasn't until 1988 that I had my own home theater. So when DVD/home theater became the rage in 1998, I'm like, OK, so what? The video quality is no better than LaserDisc.
Back in the 1980's we were all waiting for HDTV. Some were even holding off buying NTSC TV's because they thought they'd have to throw them out when HDTV came out just around the corner. Marc Wielage on CompuServe's CEFORUM (the moral equivalent of Commander Taco on Slashdot in the 1980's) kept trying to make bets that HDTV would not come out before 1990, and no one would take him up on it. It's 2004 and we still don't have pre-recorded HDTV movies.
If it weren't for DVD's, I'm sure we'd have digital video HDTV LaserDiscs by now. DVD's may have made the studios money, but they're no friend of the videophile.
Re:Popularity of DVDs is still a mystery to me (Score:5, Insightful)
There wasn't an OS easy enough for idiots to use until 1995. Your question has been answered.
"Same with home theater. Back in 1983, There was a store down the road from where I live called "Future Tech" that was the inspiration to all us Northern Virginia nerds at the time -- half Atari home computers and half home theater (before that term was coined). In the back was a room plastered with foam sound panels, a 10 foot diagonal Kloss front-projection screen, LaserDisc, and surround sound. It wasn't that different than a DVD/big screen/surround setup of today."
People couldn't afford the price tags and the equipment was crap by todays standards. Maybe you can afford new speakers every year after blowing them but most of us can not. Projection screens were/are crap also, good for only a few years before warping/fading/losing quality. Nevermind the time period you are speaking of "BUY AMERICAN!" was on almost every bumper sticker you saw.
"Due to still being in school, it wasn't until 1988 that I had my own home theater. So when DVD/home theater became the rage in 1998, I'm like, OK, so what? The video quality is no better than LaserDisc."
Oh you mean those extremely large discs that scratched like mad? It's hard enough keeping a tiny DVD clean and in decent condition, surely something with 10 times the surface area must be better. LaserDisc was a step backward for people. No one wanted to use an entire shelf for relatively small number of movies. They also couldn't be carried in backpacks/purses or easily put on store shelves.
"Back in the 1980's we were all waiting for HDTV. Some were even holding off buying NTSC TV's because they thought they'd have to throw them out when HDTV came out just around the corner. Marc Wielage on CompuServe's CEFORUM (the moral equivalent of Commander Taco on Slashdot in the 1980's) kept trying to make bets that HDTV would not come out before 1990, and no one would take him up on it. It's 2004 and we still don't have pre-recorded HDTV movies."
Back in the 80's a significantly large segment of the population were still watching black and white TV's. You might as well have been talking about moonbases and cities under the sea. "You're living in a dreamworld Neo". You need the blue pill my friend.
"If it weren't for DVD's, I'm sure we'd have digital video HDTV LaserDiscs by now. DVD's may have made the studios money, but they're no friend of the videophile."
Videophiles are as utterly retarded as audiophiles. You assume others give a shit about every minute detail, you spend your entire lifes savings for a few extra pixels on a digital medium that isn't even real and blame others for not adopting your same pathology.
Re:Popularity of DVDs is still a mystery to me (Score:3, Insightful)
I would say two factors: 1) The proliferation of modems as a built-in in new computers, and 2) much much more importantly, Winsock. The average person didn't want to connect to a unix prompt and run mail or pine. Being able to run Internet applications on their own windows pcs sp
Microsoft does what? (Score:3, Insightful)
AFAIK, the only relevant tech here is WMV, which is merely an implementation of the MPEG-4 standard, and as such cannot be patented or otherwise encumbered.
Methinks he'd be better off (read less likely to be screwed over) by talking to the good people at XviD [xvid.org]. Indeed, if he can arrange licensing to permit official binary distribution of the best MPEG-4 codec, we could all win.
Re:Microsoft does what? (Score:3, Informative)
WMV is NOT based on MPEG-4, although it does use some of the same technologies, but since Microsoft owns a few MPEG-4 patents, they can use them and license them as they see fit.
WMV is not controlled by the MPEGLA, who sets the price for MPEG-4.
The "Real" Father of DVD (Score:4, Interesting)
I met him at COMDEX while I was visiting the Toshiba booth back in '97. I was in the process of writing a DVD-Video authoring system, and it was refreshing at the time to talk to somebody who actually had a clue regarding the internals of the format, and I got a few pointers from him at the time. What was particularly interesting, besides having him wander around the corporate booth unescorted by salesmen, was the fact he was hiding out in a comparatively obscure corner of the 10,000 sq. foot booth hanging around a bunch of chips and data sheets. A definite
While Lieberfarb may get the credit, it was a bunch of geeks working primarily for the founders of the DVD Forum that actually got it working, and it was not an easy accomplishment. The Kareoke features of DVD, in particular, as well as oriental character encoding (which is why DVD uses sub-pictures rather than ASCII to encode text... a good idea BTW), show a strong bias toward Japanese companies and some really strange bureaucratic design compromises. I wish I knew more about the history of DVD-Video, but the format certainly whent through several design changes before it was formally released, including some major design goals that changed mid-way through the development process. I would like to see that story fully told.
Not such a bad reward at all (Score:5, Insightful)
Most people behind technical innovations that make billions for their employers don't get even 100K bonus. I think the inventor of the LED made a few hundred. In this case the fellow brokered the adoption of a single format across all players in both the media and computer industry, which is a big deal for a manager, although he did not invent the technology.
Bruce
how hollywood sees the world (Score:3, Funny)
Right there, in black and white. Inventing the technology wasn't important; oh no, it's *hyping* the technology that's the real milestone here! Without the hype, the DVD technology might still exist but we could've missed out on all those billions - and then what use would the technology be?
The article writer should give up the pen and see if he can't get a job as fluffer for hollywood executive types. Surely he's got to be pretty damned good as swallowing cock by now.
Max
Hold on... (Score:5, Insightful)
First, he aligned several multibillion dollar international companies (both content and hardware) to agree on a standard. Many of technically minded here often disparage "PHB" type activities such as negotiation or selling because they don't understand how difficult it is or the nuance and diplomacy (or aggressiveness) it requires. It's tough work yet this guy's efforts at such high level meetings obviously paid off. I don't think anyone should minimize this accomplishment. It's harder than you think.
Second, it's often vision that is much more important that technology. It's really easy to think of the next evolution of a product, to make it faster, or cheaper, but it's difficult to see the next "revolution", especially the business model that comes with it. Again, this is one of those Slashdot things that gets ridiculed to Underpants Gnomes references--it's simply not as obvious as "3. Profit!". Finding the use or market for a technology is as tough as creating the technology itself. Often, it's harder, especially to make the link to established markets or models. This fellow figured out a way to make money off of DVD and to revive a sagging distribution channel.
Did he also invent CSS and region coding? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Ohh Slashdot! (Score:2)
What does that mean...do you make change a some casino in Reno?
Re:Is that really such a bad thing? (Score:5, Insightful)
a) to provide geeks with another idol to fawn over
b) to provide geeks with another anti-christ to hate
I think the point is that this guy did what his employers paid him for, did a good job, raked in money for his employers, and then... got fired?
Yeah, I don't like region encoding or CSS all that much (especially region encoding, which just makes it harder to appreciate hard-to-find titles like foreign films), but chances are these were requirements this guy was given, and he implemented them because that was what his employer wanted. And that doesn't make him a tool, it makes him "employed".
Re:Is that really such a bad thing? (Score:3, Funny)
Not anymore.
Re:Is that really such a bad thing? (Score:5, Interesting)
No. It makes him a tool. At best, it makes him painfully naive.
Let me tell you a little story, nigh upon 20 years old at this point. My employer at the time developed a piece of software that was leased, not sold -- elaborate support contracts and all that. To ensure that a client didn't just stop payments and continue using their copy, I was ordered to create a copy protection system that would kill the application in 90 days. The idea was that clients would receive an updated copy every 60 days, provided they kept up with the payments.
Technical problem: Most of the users would not quit the program when they were done for the day, they would shut the machine off, preventing usage metrics from being written to the disk. I would detect such a case and subtract a day's worth of usage time. Some time later, Management decided that they wanted to encourage orderly shutdown of the app, and ordered me to change it such that ten days worth of usage would be lost if the machine was simply shut off. So I did. After all, they were Management, and it was My Job.
Do the math: 90 days total usage divided by 10 days per power-off equals... An important client's installation self-destructed, per Management's specifications, after two weeks.
Guess whose ass got fired for it.
I have since sworn an oath that I will never, ever design or facilitate copy protection measures again, for one simple reason: There is no honor among thieves. Copy protection is a deliberately introduced flaw, a capacity for failure that would not otherwise exist. They are stealing reliability from you. They are stealing your rights from you. I like to think of myself as a man of good character, and I will not burden my conscience or soil my reputation by participating in such reprehensible practices. I suggest you seriously consider doing the same. It's your future, after all...
Schwab
Re:Is that really such a bad thing? (Score:3, Interesting)
I have all kinds of respect for that position. It doesn't really solve the problem, though. Had you refused to make the changes that management required, they'd surely have fired you for that instead. Sounds like you just found yourself in a no-win situation. As you say, there is no honor among thieves.
Re:Is that really such a bad thing? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Is that really such a bad thing? (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know if you have some information I don't given that you just blasted the guy. The article sort of implies that he was more of a business person that got people to agree on the format. The only mark I see against him is that in the article it mentions David Boise is his "star lawyer". Of course being a standard Slashdotter, thats a heck of a mark against...
Re:Thats how it works (Score:5, Insightful)
This guy didn't invent anything. He didn't work for research and development (he was a business-guy). He didn't get fired over DRM or anything close. He was fired over a compensation dispute.
Re:laserdisc anyone? (Score:4, Informative)
Its main shortcoming was that despite appearances it was an analog video medium which was limited by the analog standard (NTSC, PAL, or SECAM) used to encode it and incapable of loss free archiving. From a mass consumer standpoint it was doomed because the viewer had to get up and flip the disc half way through most films (30 limit for CAV and 60 minute for CLV per side).
But just to clarify what the article gets so laughably wrong the laserdisc format was around for no less than 20 years. It never became dominant in the sense of Macdonalds or cockroaches, but there was always way too much good material to purchase more than a small fraction. I don't think the same could be said about DVD-audio or SACD by contrast.