“Hey, Bambi? They’re, like, showing that Classic OC episode tonight?”
“They are? Is there, like, a code?”
“Duh”
Bambi flicked her wrist, slaped her spime into shape and held it over a square image that looked like a space invader. The spime scanned, selected the closest wi-fi connection and streamed the trailer.
The Vault logged the transaction. And, along with the tailer, came something else.
The Code.
But that didn’t run. It wasn’t ready. There needed to be a critical mass before that show.
***
The Consortium owned entertainment. All of it – video, audio, news. Big Entertainment had won.
Sure, there were some notable battles:
The Blog Protest of 2004, when people that knew, and cared, turned their backgrounds to grey.
That really fired up the masses…
But it was the Radio revolt of 2009 that set the stage for the coming conflict.
Internet radio stations, en-mass, started playing music announcing they weren’t going to pay criminally excessive royalty charges.
The government, at the request of the recording industry, sent in the police.
The Police met protesters of all kinds – young, old, activist, angry – and it wasn’t long before a bullet was fired.
The resulting riot lasted 3 days an left 20 people dead. It was then, and only then, the recording artists demanded the law be changed. Blood was not to be spilt in their name. Well…no more blood.
It was then the Consortium realised things had to change.
Over the next few years the artists that spoke out were dropped and more compliant, manufactured, bands took their place. As the old died of obscurity, or lived a new, smaller, life of independence, The Consortium took radio back.
But it was the Content Strike of 2013 that was the decider.
With the little luck they had of closing down early media pirates and their data sharing networks, difficulties with writers wanting a fair wage, and with independent creators making their own series, the entertainment companies stopped making anything.
No new movies, music or television. They demanded massive control over all of their content, and if they didn’t get it, well – people would have to learn to talk to each other again.
The people protested, the actual industry who made the content protested, but to no avail.
By 2015 the Consortium had won.
It owned it all. You didn’t own anything.
You bought multiuse licenses and when they wore out, you bought new ones. All purchases were tagged with your details and then streamed. Nothing was stored locally, and if you found a way to own that data, and many tried to, the Consortium would search for data trails and prosecute every criminal to the fullest extent of the law.
With the uptake of Spimes – multipurpose, ubiquitous and networked machines – The Consortium sold restriction as a life style choice.
“My life is on the go. I don’t want Stuff to tie me down.”
***
Six months ago The Code went critical mass. For six months it was monitored, to ensure the Consortium was unaware. For six months a plan was put into place.
Once a year The Consortium held a Gong Show where it gave itself awards for producing crap. The entire event was broadcast, at a premium rate, through the channel that needed to increase its ad revenues.
This year, though, the show would be very different.
***
The Dread Pirate Roberts pushed the “talk” button on her wrist-com.
“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, kids of all ages. This is your captain speaking.”
