There are many kinds of FAIL. Some might even be quite funny (when you’re not the one failing, of course).
But there is one fail that bothers me right now, a whole industry failing: the Home Entertainment Industry.
I’m fond of US fictions, TV or movies. But I live in France. So from Day 1, I bought most of my DVDs in the US. There was DVDExpress.com, and then Amazon. It gave me the 3-6 months my early adopter ego required.
I remember the 1st season of 24. I had the DVD box set 6 months before it was even aired in France. Nobody even knew the show, I was already addicted. How cooler can you be ?
Now, it’s a whole different story. The cool guys are the ones downloading the show, 20 mn after it was aired, for free, making me the dumb ass paying his DVDs, only to get them 6 months after every one.
So, I, who has been buying hundreds of DVD for years, who could afford to buy new ones, will now start to download illegally.
I call that a massive FAIL.
There are several reasons to this failure. Mainly due to the Studios.
In a nutshell, they still don’t know they have to adapt much faster.
First, they think they can pull the buy your video collection one more time with the Blu Ray, as they did with the DVD. So they throw little bones (iTMS, Amazon unbox…) to keep the tech-saavy guys calm, while they sell over priced Blu Rays to the others (not to mention those poor bastards who bet on the HD-DVD).
Then there is the “world problem”.
Yes people, you have consumers outside the US borders. Please, explain how comes it takes 6 month for a movie to cross an ocean ?! You might want to start to think global.
Last, they lack the technology. Studios (still them) don’t want to entrust a Microsoft, nor an Apple, with there movies.
They fear they will loose the control. So they try their own method, and fail. Not everybody is a Steve Jobs, not every body can come up with a decennial plan to rule the world of medias and succeed.
So, here is a shot:

• Make movie premieres worldwide.
• Thus, making DVD/Blu Ray realeases simultaneous (while you’re at it, drop DVD/Blu Ray zoning).
• Make downloadable versions of movies, over an ITunes/Unbox/Whatever-non-microsoft, platform independant, with the ability to store, organize our own collection.
• Stop winning with your copyrights and everything: no one will ever pity you.

Damned, I’m pissed !