Eisner, Cuban, and Communism
By Jim Brown. Tuesday, 11. March 2008, 20:40:35
When I walked into the packed Michael Eisner interview, I thought it'd be cool. Little did I know (I need to read the program more carefully) that Mark Cuban would be interviewing him. Being a Dallas Mavericks fan, this was a nice surprise.
(Image courtesy of Unfair Park)
The room was completely packed, and I had to move around a good bit to find a place to stand. So, I didn't get a chance to take extensive notes. The part of the discussion that jumped out at me (and it was a discussion...one that flowed nicely) was when Eisner compared the notion of "free content" to communism. Cuban asked how long it would be until all content was free, and Eisner threw up in his mouth a little bit. This isn't too surprising - Eisner's whole money-making venture involves charging for content. His recent work - The Burg, Prom Queen, and The All-For-Nots - is an attempt to go online, but he's still part of the "old guard." Cuban tried to push Eisner on his somewhat simplistic notions of how one makes money online, but one gets the sense that Cuban is no longer part of the "young guns."
As I walked out, I heard some young hipsters talking about Eisner and Cuban. One hipster said to another: "Dude, these guys just don't get it." So much for Cuban (creator of broadcast.com - which he eventually sold to Yahoo) being the "rebel." Looks like he's part of the "old guard now too."
WIDGETIZE
Lawmune # 18. March 2008, 00:19