Hollywood Vs. The Internet
The internet has changed our lives, unifying people around the world and taking communication and sharing above and beyond. But to those who rely on the restricted distribution of media, the internet is chaos.
The problem is the fear of losing money, Hollywood producers feel as though they have unjustly had their money taken straight out of their pockets by the online peer to peer network, the sharing of movie and media files for free. Unfortunately, it isn’t likely that any real solution to online ‘piracy’ will occur anytime soon and those who do download free content aren’t likely to stop with the current economic climate leaving many people out of pocket.
So how does Hollywood make money when their product is being distributed for free? Perhaps the answer lies in working with the internet instead of purely against it. A solution may be to offer copies of their movies for download themselves, cutting out those who create the pirated copies and taking control of the market, while telling the downloader if they enjoyed the film that they should go and buy it on disc to support the filmmaker.
Some have already adopted this approach such as in the music industry and other industries such as art and literature are following suit. On my iBooks library I am allowed to download free ebooks through the iTunes store with the plea of supporting the novelist if I enjoyed the book. This works for me and I have often time paid money when I felt it was worth it.
This may not be the most profitable solution for Hollywood and probably won’t provide a permanent solution but until Hollywood comes up with a better idea, such as the one being thought over by The Content Faction - to create all new media with a ‘Watermark’ which can only be played on devices that allow watermark media and won’t allow copying of copyright protected material - then they may just have to deal with the fact that the internet (and downloading) is here to stay.
The article relating to The Content Faction and more information on the 'Watermark' can be found at;
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/09/20/1032054954195.html
Another solution may be better education to the downloaders, informing them of just exactly what it means to download copyrighted material, but considering the current financial issues many face, the message may go unheard.
The Beginnings of a Short NCT Film
For
my film assignment I am working with Steph and our film asks the question, “Could
you survive without your communication technology?”
This
week we have been working on our film ideas and content ideas. We have decided
to use our iPhones for the filming as there are many apps available on the
iPhone to aid in filming , editing and production.
We
have decided on using a music making program to create our own music instead of
trying to work around copyright laws concerning online distribution of music
and media.
In
order to avoid any complications with defamation, we are going to ask any who
participate in our filming to sign a form stating that they understand the film
will shown on the internet and that they allow us to use the footage of them in
our film in relevance to the questions asked.
