...media policy brief 1 Creative Destruction and Copyright Protection Regulatory Responses to File-sharing Bart Cammaerts and Bingchun Meng London School of Economics and Political Science Department of Media and Communications LSE Media Policy Project: Media policy brief 1 Creative destruction and copyright protection Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Professors Robin Mansell and Sonia Livingstone for their insightful editorial contributions on earlier drafts of this media policy brief. We are also grateful for the research and organizational assistance of our resourceful and talented interns: Dorota Kazcuba, Nate Vaagen, Ben Murray, Davide Morisi and Liam O’Neill. In addition, Jim Killock and Mark Margarattan contributed to stimulating discussion during the project’s expert meeting on ‘File-sharing, the DEA and its implementation’. The LSE Media Policy Project is funded by the Higher Education Innovation Fund 4. LSE Media Policy Project Series Editors Zoetanya Sujon and Damian Tambini Creative Commons copyright licence, Attribution-NonCommercial. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms. March 2011. LSE Media Policy Project. http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/mediapolicyproject/ 1 LSE Media Policy Project: Media policy brief 1 Creative destruction and copyright...
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...copyrighted material is nothing new to the world we live in. Since the advent of P2P technology with Napster in 1999, the Entertainment industry has struggled to grasp the magnitude of this emerging cultural phenomenon. Never again in human history was it as effortless, economical and fast to copy and distribute music and movies to the masses. A few decades back, the entertainment industry faced a similar predicament regarding music cassettes and VHS tapes. They swore in belief that these “parasitic” technologies would disrupt economic growth forever. Yet again, history proved them utterly wrong, as they bigger than ever. The main arguments branch into three lines of defense against downloading: (i) how the artists make a living; (ii) the Entertainment industry’s growth and affluence; (iii) the claim “without copyright, there will be no culture” . Nowadays, artists expect to be paid, and remuneration is their incentive to stay creative and continue working, because at the end of the day this is how they pay their bills. Does this support the viewpoint that this will make the industry shrink, and less creative content will be available for our enjoyment? Every year the industry announces a higher number in lost profits, by which they try to explain the extent of the problem, but the figures are contradicted in scholar studies. The industry criticizes the ethics of people downloading content without paying, by saying that someone has spent time and money for it to be made, so...
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...participate in peer-2-peer networks to share digitized formats of music, videogames, movies or other applications (“Peer-to-Peer File-Sharing”). The shift of music from compact discs to mp3’s has financially affected the music industry. Not only is money lost on the decreasing sales of outdated CD’s, but also on litigation circling the issues of copyright. Any downloaded music, videogames, movies, or applications from peer-2-peer networks sites are protected by copyright law and once downloaded are now considered copyright infringed. Over the years, The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and its associated record companies have taken much time and spent a good amount of money to conduct investigations and prosecute individuals involved in illegal music file sharing and copyright infringement. However, the Internet has proven to move faster than the prosecutions of individuals responsible for illegal music downloading, which, in the long run, has had very little effect. As we continue moving farther away from compact discs towards audio formats on the Internet, the music industry stands to lose the most from digital music swapping by the lack of innovation to the digital revolution and instead attempting to enforce current copyright laws through pointless prosecution of individuals. While more and more people participate in file sharing, the music...
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...through the internet in one form or the other. These forms may include, but not limited to, music, still pictures, video clips and sound. With all these sharing, internet has become a common place to upload and download audio-visual materials like recorded films. Copyright is a common method used to protect ones production rights on a particular piece of material over the internet. In fact, the graph below shows that copyright infringement is the most common type of infringement; Figure 1: source; Canadian SME However, in peer-to-peer file sharing, most people infringe these rights and pass other people’s work as their own. In fact, IFPI states in their report that “the ease of access to music by means of illegal file sharing has damaged its perceived value to customers”. This has been a great challenge to music and film industry globally (Leyshon, A., 2003). For instance in the recent emergence of file swapping services that are based on the internet. These services include Napster that has allowed huge exploitation of recorded work without any little authorization of the users. Actually, this has been attributed to the slow rate of sales in CDs and DVDs due to enabled file sharing (P2P). (Mortimer, J. 2012). Peer-to-Peer sharing and copyright law Copyright in this context is the legal protective law for all kinds of creative work on any form(s) of media. This law therefore limits unfair usage of these intellectual properties in both real world and cyberspace. Infringement...
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...In the article "Copying Isn't Cool," the author Scott Matthews, a software developer addresses the issue of sharing copyrighted files. The author believes that such an act hurts the right of owners and stopping or changing the copyright laws will only cause more confusion and chaos. Thus, such laws need to remain the same and be enforced instead. The author’s purpose in writing this essay is to persuade the people who support the decision proposed by EFF to change the copyright laws that such an act does more harm than good. The author was successful in persuading the readers as the article was well-organized, easy to read and quite persuasive because the reasoning was good; however, it lacked sufficient evidence in some places, and was bias. The article mainly argues that pirating copyrighted material is a serious issue today that is immoral and should be stopped. Though the author is open to discussion, he argues against the system of compensation for copyright holders proposed by EFF that suggests that all downloads be taxed, claiming that it would encourage file-sharing to an extent that it becomes unstoppable. It would also compromise free speech and privacy which would go against the claimed ideologies of the EFF itself. The author seems a fairly open minded person and this is reflected in the article. He does not have a mind-set against changing file-sharing laws but rather proposes a debate in this regard. The author was successful in persuading the reader, as first...
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...Prosperity of the Music Industry Abstract In an era where pop culture and technology are rapidly growing, intertwining and becoming embedded in the everyday lives of Americans, it was inevitable that their paths would cross. Possibly the most affected medium of pop culture is the music industry. The growth and development of the internet is either their biggest gift or biggest curse. Modern technology has made wide-scale trading of music possible in the form of MP3 files available over the internet for free. Users can simply upload the files to these sharing sites and millions of others at any given time have the ability to download it from them. The Recording Industry Association of America, however, doesn’t share the enthusiasm about these file sharing practices. To them, it is stealing from the record company and from the artist themselves. Consumers don’t tend to see it that way. The issue that arises here is whether or not should music be accessible for free trade over the internet. On the one hand, it is thought that MP3 downloads reduce sales of legitimate CDs. On the other hand, it can be argued that downloading free MP3s could actually encourage someone to buy a CD which they may not have purchased had they not heard it in its entirety. This is known as the sampling effect. The focus of this research paper will be to paper analyze the impact of music file sharing on the demand, supply, and prosperity of the music industry. The music industry is presently in a...
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...Piracy DIGITAL PIRACY In a day and age when almost all creative works can be put into digital form and legally distributed, there is also a huge potential for theft. This type of theft is known as digital piracy or intellectual property theft and often results in lost revenue, jobs, and wages. Battling online theft is a daily challenge for copyright owners. Digital piracy occurs when creative works such as graphics, photos, movies, songs, or text are distributed online without the consent of the artist, creator, or author and is in direct violation of copyright laws. (Artists Against Digital Theft) These thieves are often referred to as digital pirates. These pirates often setup professional and well-designed websites that trick consumers into believing they are legal. These websites are usually hosted overseas so that digital pirates can avoid requests to remove illegal content. It is very costly and time consuming for copyright owners to pursue international litigation to stop illegal distribution of their creative works. (Artists Against Digital Theft) In an attempt to stop digital piracy, the creative community is uniting together to “champion the rights of artists.” (Artists Against Digital Theft) A website called, Stop Stealing My Future, hosts a contest to help raise awareness about digital piracy. Artists upload videos of themselves explaining how digital piracy affects jobs and the digital arts industry. (Stop Stealing My Future) Another website called, Artists...
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...rights in creative works as "piracy" predates statutory copyright law. The Sean Parker joined friend Shawn Fanning and started the file-sharing service Napster in 1999. Napster's popularity among music lovers quickly escalated. Within its first year, the service attracted tens of millions of users, but also became a target of the music industry, which saw the start-up as a huge threat to its business. Napster was opposed by recording labels, the Recording Industry Association of America, and the heavy metal band Metallica, among others. Lawsuits by various industry associations eventually shut down the service Napster has been called the fastest growing business of all time, is credited with revolutionizing the music industry, and is considered by some to be a precursor to iTunes. I can actually agree with what happened, as piracy is wrong. But I must stress that it was a needed action. Which resulted in all of these companies expanding their industry. Focusing the music, film industry into evolving. Expanding. Into the new era, the era of the internet. In February 2003, Dotcom set up another company called Data Protect Limited, but changed the name to Megaupload in 2005.Megaupload was a file hosting and sharing online service he company was successful. However, millions of people from across the globe used Megaupload to store and access copies of TV shows, feature films, songs, porn, and software. Eventually it had over 150 employees, US$175 million revenues, and 50...
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...knowledge owned by another individual. There are several forms of piracy that invade the online world – music, movies, software, and videogames. The issues surrounding online piracy revolve on the difference between physical property and intellectual property. The videogame content is an intellectual property while the CD of the videogame is a physical property. Since piracy is a problem for most software companies and the entertainment industry, this has encompassed copyright violations. Copyright pertains to the legal right that serves as protection for works that have been created. A copyright provides the purchaser an exclusive right to produce copies of the intellectual property. The problem of online piracy gained attention during the period when Napster allowed internet users to exchange digital music files through the use of peer-to-peer technology. In 2000, Napster had over twenty million users. What made the site very controversial was the unlimited access that the users have to copyrighted music. The downloading of files was not realized as a means of practicing piracy. Stealing was never considered their ultimate purpose. Major issues Brian Lee ordered a videogame which apparently did not function after he attempted to play. The videogame problem was linked to the system of digital rights management or DRM. DRM is used by company to protect the material from unauthorized copying and securely deliver the intellectual property in ways such as progressive...
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...Digital Distribution and the Music Industry in 2001: a Case Study of Napster By Julius Danjuma IS650: Telecommunications Management Summer 2012 Overview: Shawn Fanning created Napster in his dorm room at Northeastern. It was the fastest-growing application in the history of the Internet which changed the world but failed to achieve business success. Napster started out as a free download tool but the goal was to make it into a real business in partnership with the record labels. The goal at Napster was to be the online distribution channel for the record labels, much like iTunes for example. There were several offers made to the labels that would have given them the vast majority of all of the revenue. The numbers were staggering. There were over 50 million users, many of whom were willing to pay $5 per month or $1 per download for digital music. That translates to about $250M a month or $3B per year. Even if Napster kept just 10% of the revenue that would be $300M per year against expenses of less than $10M. At the stock market multiples of the day that would have been a $15B IPO. The economics of the record industry are puzzling and their accounting methods are very creative. At the time CD’s were sold for about $17 at retail. The retailer and distributor took more than half of the price as their mark-up. The manufacturing costs took another couple bucks. The promotional costs of advertising, music video, payola to radio stations, and other PR typically...
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...Benefits and Alternative approach Anik K Singh 8/11/2012 The Graduated Response System INTRODUCTION The growth of internet and its ever increasing pervasiveness has caused extensive digitization of copyrighted content not limited to a single format and subsequently an increase in online piracy. This combined with the advent of P2P file sharing mechanisms as a massive means of infringement practice has led to a paradigm shift in the approach to copyright infringement. Where unauthorized copying of a work was earlier considered a means of increasing a work’s market by stimulating its network effects, it is today seen as an unfair practice, a hindrance to the content owners and artists creative and financial viability. This shift has seen associations like RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) take desperate measures to curb illegal file sharing, the latest means of which is the “Three Strikes Rule” also known as The Graduated Response Plan. This paper starts with a brief overview on why copyright laws are important to content owners and discusses illegal file sharing, its history and the various means used for it. We then discuss the various approaches that representative bodies like RIAA have taken in the past and why the transition to the Graduate Response Plan, how it operates, its relative advantages and disadvantages to the various set of people involved in the copy right system and finally some...
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...3d printing is no longer a theory or a concept. It has been available to industrial manufactures for the last few year but now as technology is advancing at its usual frightening pace the first home consumer printers are becoming available and like the original printers they are rapidly moving on from their slow, expensive and cumbersome beginnings . The Makerbot replicator 2 is an example of a 3d printer available to the consumer retailing for approx $2000. 3d printing relies on additive manufacturing which allows objects to be built layer by layer only using the exact amount of material needed reducing waste and of course allowing for more complicated designs to be printed in full form. Users can design a 3d model in computer software programs such as CAD and print off the design by inputting materials such as plastic or mouldable metal and other forms of materials that allow the object to be printed in full form. The technology has already being used to print off a replacement jaw for an 83 year old woman out of titanium powder and many believe the technology will greatly enhance medical services . Furthermore ,the technology has endless less obvious benefits such as printing off replacement parts and printing off designs that are impossible to be handcrafted but entirely possible when designed and produce on CAD or similar software. Many are predicting 3d technology to be a game changer to the entire world. Amazon is a global leader in e-commerce offering a wide range...
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...Technologies The affects of the iPod on music industry Table of Contents Section 1: Introduction Page 4 Section 2: Technology Adoption Page 4 Section 3: Value Chain Page 5 Section 4: Relationships Page 6 Section 5: Conclusion Page 7 Section 6: References Page 7 Introduction The purpose of this report is to discuss the functions and features of Apple’s innovative MP3 player. I will be relating to the Schumpeterian model, as to how the iPod led to rapid mainstream adoption, whilst similar products failed. I will also consider the opportunities which promoted this device and the challenges that the Apple iPod currently face, highlighting the effects on the traditional music industry value chain, compared to the current value chain. In addition, I will discuss how the iPod developed working relationships which has assisted in Apple’s e-business success. I will then finish by concluding my findings. Technology Adoption The Schumpeterian model looks at the relationship between technological innovation and business activity. According to Perez (2002) there are five typical stages of each wave, which I will briefly describe. Irruption The Apple iPod was launched in 2001, a sleek and stylish MP3 player with an easy user interface, compressing digital audio files the iPod holds up to 1,000 songs and fits neatly in...
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..."English Business Programs" "Assignment Writing" "Second Semester" "CiB_01/03" "Marketing" "The marketing-plan of Apple Computer" "entering the digital music revolution" "Course Lecturer: John F. Sykes" "Author: Urs Gaudenz" "Submitted: January 22nd 2004" " CONTENTS" "1 Introduction 4" "2 Methodology 4" "3 Digital Music Revolution 5" "4 SWOT Analysis 6" "4.1 Opportunities 6" "4.2 Threats 6" "4.3 Strengths 7" "4.4 Weaknesses 7" "5 The Market Entry 8" "5.1 The Market for...
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...The purpose of this outline is to identify and recognize the Tangible and Intellectual property rights significant to the Information Technology sector. The research should identify what the managers in that industry can do to protect the property rights of the organization, and what the managers in that industry should do to assure that the organization protects the intellectual property rights of others. This will require an understanding of tangible and intellectual property in general, plus research about the tangible and intellectual property issues in the selected industry. Tangible Properties that is significant in the Information Technology sector According to Webster and Dictionary.com Tangible is having actual physical existence, as real estate or chattels, and therefore capable of being assigned a value in monetary terms, capable of being touched, real or actual, rather than imaginary or visionary. According to LAW-531, rEsource Ch 16, Tangible property is the type of property we can see and touch. Delivery trucks, desks, computers, inventory, and the Building and land in which a business is located are all forms of tangible property. Information technology computer hardware includes computers components input keyboards, output screens or monitors, and peripherals including cables, scanners, surge protectors, optical drives, digital imaging equipment, printers, data processing equipment, Fax machines. The IT sector has much to offer in this category...
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