More signs that we are in 21st century after all

I don't know what a XIXth (or XXth) century englishman would say, if we told him that English unions would one day protest against losing skilled jobs to India.

Indian call centre move 'idiotic'

A union representing UK call centre workers has criticised the chief executive of National Rail Enquiries for saying that Indian staff were better than their British counterparts. Rail enquiries chief executive Chris Scoggins said the service could be improved if outsourced to India. He said the move could also save rail firms up to £25m over several years. But Amicus union said: "This attitude is an example of the idiocy of moving the inquiry service 10,000 miles away."

Source: BBC

And, in the heels of our previous post about Sekhar Kapur interview, today the blogsphere is buzzing with news of the P2P network Kazaa's agreement to distribute (in a pay-per-view fashion) the indian film Supari. If this works out economically, the sidelining of traditional distribution channels might very well enhance the global reach of Bollywood productions, specially among the growing Asian diaspora in the developed world. We are truly living in interesting times.


File-swapping company Sharman Networks on Thursday said it will digitally distribute a feature film from Bollywood, using its peer-to-peer application, Kazaa.

The Hindi-language film, "Supari," will be offered to Kazaa users for $2.99, under the terms of the agreement the Australian company has signed with P2P products distributor Altnet and Indian filmmaker Aum Creates Unlimited.

Songs from the movie will available for 90 cents each, while trailers and production footage can be downloaded for free. The filmmaker will get paid each time the movie file is shared and purchased via Kazaa.

(...)

"The Bollywood movie market is growing at twice the rate of Hollywood, in terms of production and revenue. This is where the benefits of P2P technology become really clear," Sharman CEO Nikki Hemming said in a statement. "P2P technology offers the movie industry a huge opportunity to massively enhance its distribution and generate revenue."
Source: CNet