Article Details
Confessions of a Media Junkie |
| Date Added: May 22, 2008 11:47:29 AM |
| Author: Torrent Fan |
| Category: Entertainment - Games, TV, Music, Theatre |
| I’ve never been big on lumping generational groups together and calling them ‘X’, but I am fast realising that I belong to a generation of media junkies. Back when we were kids we watched what was on television when our parents said we could watch it. Then came the internet.As a generation we are no longer satisfied to wait until an artist’s CD, or the new movie we’ve been dying to see hits the shelves in our local stores. We’re not inclined to stay up to watch the latest great TV series. We want them now and we get them online.Audiences across the world have turned to the internet for entertainment via P2P sites: it’s fast, it’s instant, it’s accessible and it’s the norm but in most cases it’s not actually legal. Effects of Piracy on the Entertainment IndustryIt’s not as easy as you would think to track down the latest facts and figures of the effects of online piracy on the media industry but just to give you a ballpark idea of what they are facing: • The music industry: Approximately 20 billion illegal downloads in 2005 which equates to $4.5 billion of pirated products. • The film industry: Lost $18.2 billion to piracy in 2005 and the ripple effect has caused a total loss of output for US industries of $20.5 billion per year. • The television industry: Faced a million illegal downloads per episode of many popular TV shows in 2006 – I’m sure the advertisers weren’t too thrilled about that.With global music sales, big screen traffic and at home audiences dropping year by year the effects on the industry have become quite clear. The music industry was the first to recognise that if you can’t beat them you better join them. Well… kind of. DRM software was the answer to the plight of the music industry. DRM stands for Digital Rights Management and refers to technologies being developed to limit usage of digital media. In many cases it also means that restrictions are placed on the devices that can be used to consume the media.But, DRM has never really embraced the real issue - namely that P2P is about sharing. Sure it not only provided the industry with a solution to piracy but with a new revenue stream (one which now accounts for the fastest area for growth in the music industry), but it ignores the open and social nature of the net that so many P2P sites embrace. Apple’s FairPlay is a good example. The Solution?Wired editor and author of The Long Tail, Chris Anderson has been touting some really interesting thoughts around the idea of ‘Free’. Basically he embraces the concept that giving things away for free can still lead to massive profits and this kind of thinking definitely has a place in the debate around P2P and piracy.Anderson provides a number of examples that illustrate this, and anyone who likes music and the internet has heard of the ‘The Radiohead Model’. In 2007 Radiohead gave away their new album ‘In Rainbows’ online and allowed users to pay any amount they think the band deserved with no obligation. As we know, this increased awareness and promoted ticket sales for concerts and made them a lot more money than they would have if they had followed the traditional route.New technology is being developed that embraces and enables this model of media distribution. Whilst this is a very new and fresh approach to dealing with piracy it seems as though it will be a successful one. Australia’s Ninemsn is one of the pioneering networks in this field. By utilising a new DRM technology (Hiro) two of their popular shows, and obvious favourites of mine, Canal Road and Sea Patrol are currently available for free download. This technology allows viewers to watch the shows on their own computers, when they feel like it without having to pay a cent or feel guilty about what their actions are doing to the industry – and that’s why us media junkies love it. This cutting-edge technology is putting a positive spin on digital rights management as the problem with DRM is that it presents a system of software ‘locks’ that can prevent a file from being shared. What’s exciting is that Ninemsn is embracing the spirit of the internet and its open and free nature. And it’s this concept of ‘Positive DRM’ that has us, a generation of passionate internet users, really excited. Online file sharing on illegal P2P sites is rife and technologies such as this one being employed by Ninemsn (and I am sure many other networks will jump onboard soon) is finally giving us media junkies a way to watch our favourite content, when we want to, where we want to and in a free and legal manner! We have been absolved!Torrent Fan is a self-confessed media junkie and advocator of the open and free nature of the internet. Passionate about the concept of freeconomics she has been inspired by the changes in DRM software and its adoption for two of her favourite TV shows. |
