Universal Music Group announced late last week it is suing MySpace for copyright violations, charging that the popular community Web site allows its users to post copyright protected music and videos. In other news, dog bites man; film at 11.
How much money have media companies spent litigating against Web sites and software companies in a blind effort to turn the clock back to 1950? Real piracy — people copying and selling DVDs or music — is one thing, some teenager posting her favorite Jay-Z song to her MySpace page is a completely different situation, yet music, film, and TV companies fail to see the difference.
A long list of litigants are already queuing up to file lawsuits against video-sharing site YouTube for other “violations” of copyright now that it is owned by deep-pocketed Google. They see a grave threat to their business models from fans posting clips and episodes from their favorite shows and movies, rather than a means to find new fans who might start tuning in during regular broadcasts.
Let’s be clear: The Grid and digital media are here to stay and even more powerful tools are on the way that will give end users more ways to copy, collect and distribute music and video. That means the world in which over-the-air TV and radio dictates popular culture is dead, the era of the CD is drawing to close and the lifespan of the DVD is not far behind. Centralized control of media content no longer exists.
Film and music companies, if they want to continue to thrive, need to recognize this shift in technology and consumer desires and work with it rather than against it. On MySpace, for example, when a user posts a copy of “Fergalicious,” why not include a way for someone to buy Fergie’s new album, The Dutchess? When a fan uploads a clip from a TV show to YouTube, why not place an ad on that same page directing interested viewers to where they can get more episodes from iTunes?
Only by coming out of their collective shell and stepping into the brave new world of digital communication will media companies be able to survive.
Comments
Mark Bruns Says:
November 26th, 2006 at 10:12 pm
Hmmm … let’s think about the similarities, tangencies to real estate and real estate markets … and how real estate is increasingly virtual, but will probably never be entirely virtual, because real estate is special and unique (i.e. only one Earth made) …when ones buys real estate, one buys a bundle of rights to a very unique, special commodity … most owners of real estate will [choose to] ignore at least a portion of that bundle of rights because the bundle is effectively infinite, i.e. there is only so much you can do with a property at a given time, but ownership means that the only owner can choose how/when to develop that unique, special property. There is always a population of owner-wannabes with ‘better’ ideas for any given property … until the ONE owner-wannabe comes up with enough ___ to effect a deal with the owner, the owner-wannabe can’t be transformed into the owner. The owner-wannabe can only dream … any citizen can gawk at special architecture, shining office towers or exquisite mansions, but if you fancy yourself as a developer who can build expensive buildings on remarkable real estate, you have to have extraordinarily special abilities and an assembly of assets.
Giving away digital entertainment is likely to be the highest and best use of the electrons onto which the entertainment is printed … MySpace downloads are better than CDs, DVDs because the downloads are cheaper to produce … the reason for giving away the free product is that media types are ~beginning~ to understand the magic of their properties. Free downloads draws more people to own the unique, special, high value property that so inspires, captivates that people part with their coins (i.e. live shows, backstage passes, cocktails or special time with the artist.)
“But how does the artist get paid?” people will ask … artists are paid in the pychic rewards of creating art; great art itself pays the geniuses who create it exceptionally, immortally well … the rest of us who think that our crocheted potholders are are great art will have to have other jobs as engineers, bankers or janitors because potholder gigs don’t usually pay much; if artists want to be rich and famous, they need to master the performance craft, get up on stage and risk everything as they perform and INSPIRE their audience [to give and give and give ...].
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