Tim Berners Lee Speaks About The Copyright Alert System

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/tech/internet-creator-tim-berners-lee-copyright-alert-system-bad-democracy

Online streaming research

Streaming media is not something that is considered a new technology in today's age, yet the rise of online streaming in the last year or so has been massive turning it into a multi millions dollar industry. Streaming media has been around for some time and in its by first form was localised only to people's local networks, allowing them to stream media from one computer to another be it music or films giving them some freedom of where they are able to watch their media from. "Severe Tire Damage" was the first band to perform live on the Internet. On June 24, 1993, and as proof that the technology they had used for streaming was working, the band was broadcast and could be seen live in Australia and elsewhere.

From this the next iteration of streaming was in the form of online video streaming, which was only now possible due to the rise of broadband and ergo higher bandwidth Internet lines, and the biggest intervention from this would be YouTube which still to this day is the biggest video sharing site in the world.

After the rise of YouTube the next improvement to streaming is what we all have now grown to know which would be the likes of Netflix and LoveFilm for Tv and Film streaming and Spotify for music streaming. All of these platforms have a similar business model being that all of services will allow the user to have a free trail of the service for about a month, with Spotify being the only exception as it allows the user to continue using the service for free with certain restrictions, but all of these services allow the user to pay for a subscription giving them unlimited access to the service with no adverts, this sort of business model is refered to as a freemium model which is being seen in quite a few apps in todays market where it saw its rise.

The Role Of iTunes

iTunes is one of the main Music Players in todays current computer systems, it also has the features available to allow users to purchase movies, songs, and TV Series. iTunes was first developed by Bill Kincaid under the name of SoundJam MP. In 2000 Bill's software was bought by Apple who later on January 09 2001 released a version under the name of iTunes. iTunes was originally a Mac only product but later arrived on windows In October after the release of the iPod as this was the only software available to put songs onto your iPod.

iTunes has greatly expanded since its humble beginnings and can now be found on pretty much any system as one of the top used media players to date. And throughout many different iterations and updates all of the features that we have grown to love and use in our day to day lives were slowly added, biggest of all was the iTunes Store which was introduced with Version 4 of iTunes. The iTunes store allowed people for the first time to legally download music from a front end GUI for a very small cost, but included apples own DRM ( Digital Rights Management ) in the form of Fairplay meaning that a song bought from the iTunes store could not be played on more than 5 authenticated computer at once. But the iTunes store has grown a lot since this time and is now offering not only Music to be downloaded legally but also TV, Movies and Podcasts as well as the App Store becoming a massive success with the rise of the iPod Touch and the iPhone.

The Role Of Napster In 2001

Napster is widely known to be one of hte pioneers in peer-to-peer filesharing software that emphasised in sharing music files encoded in the .MP3 format. It was developed by Shawn Fanning, John Fanning and Sean Parker and operated between the dates of June 1999 and July 2001. Napster was believed to be so influential and special as in was one of the first widely available and easily accessable P2P filesharing softwares around and becuase of this quickly grew in size with records showing that Napster at its peak had over 25 Million users sharing over 80 Million songs, the technology backend that also powered Napster was something that made it special as even though it was the first of its kind Napster was still one of the most robust systems created never crashing once even with over 80 Million uploads over its service.

The responce to Napster from both Arists and Comsumers varied significantly over the course of the systems life. Consumers from Napster reaped the benefits of the system and once the ball had started rolling the number of files being downloaded exploded in size, and due to the rise of broadband internet people were able to now download as many of these files as they wanted. But many artists on the other hand felt completely different about Napster, after finding out that many of their new songs and demos had been leaked all over the internet they set out to shutdown these files being leaked at the source which of course led them to napster. The biggest example of this would be Metallica who after finding out the a demo of their soon to be released song "I Disappear" had been leaked on napster compiled a list of everyone on the service who they believed to be sharing thier music, after this they handed a 60,000 page document of the users and demanded that they be banned and that it be made impossible for a metallica song to be shared over Napster, after this many other artists followed suit and sued Napster for copyright infringement and Loss of earnings. But many artists spoke out publically and defended Napster saying that it was a great tool and can be used for promotional uses. A big example of this would be Radiohead and Dispatch, Radiohead had never had a song in the Top 20 Chart but after their experimental album Kid A got leaked on napster the album shot to Number One when it was finally released. Dispatch on the other hand were an indepedant band but due to their music being shared legally over Napster to over 25 Million users they became the first ever independant band to ever Headline the Madison Square Garden.

Napster was later forced to shut down in order to comply with the injunction that was issued on March 5th 2001. On September 24 2001 Napster partially settled the case and agreed to pay the rightsholders $26Million for unauthorised sharing of music and a further $10Million for future licence royalties. Napster then tried to convert to a Subscription based service but ultimately failed and filed for bankruptcy on June 03 2002.

Music Sales Increased For The First Time Since Napster And The Copyright Alert System

For the first time since 1999, which was the last time in which the music industry saw some form of growth, we are seeing some form of increase in the sales within the industry. From then the music industry has seen a decline in sales which is mainly caused by the use of P2P torrenting sites such as ThePirateBay and KAT, but this decline may have finally stopped as recorded music sales have inched up 0.3 percent. If this growth was to continue the predictions will be coming true as last year digital sales have increased by 9%. People have been attesting this growth in the music industry to the availability of the now prevalent ad-funded services such as Spotify, Vevo, Youtube and Grooveshark, all of these sites allowing people to listen to music for either a monthly subscription or for free with adverts interlaced between songs which the revenue is then paid out to the rights holders of the songs on the platforms. So even though we have seen  just a tiny growth in the music industry for the first time in a long while I do believe that this shows that online digital means of sharing music such as Spotify Etc are the way forward for the music industry as even people who admit to pirating music have said that the availability of free online streaming even with ads is one of the main reasons that they have stopped pirating minions.

Secondly as the music industry as usual has been struggling to combat the rising threat of Piracy in the industry, which has been happening since the late 1990's with the rise of broadband internet and Napster, the only way in which the industry has fought back has been through suing 11 year old children and 90 year old women who don't even own a PC. But now the music and film industry have teamed up with five of the major US internet service providers (ISP) and have launched the new six-strike Copyright Alert System. This new system works by the MPAA and the RIAA monitoring peer-to-peer file sharing sites (E.g. torrent sites such as ThePirateBay) and if they catch people sharing copyrighted material they will record the users internet protocol address (IP) and then send it on to the ISP. The ISP's, who are currently Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner and Cablevision, will then send the customer who had that IP a series of six escalating warnings. First strike is a simple notice, next comes the acknowledgement in which the user will confirm that they have been warned, and lastly is a sanction which can be internet restrictions (Capping Upload/Download Speeds) or watching a video about piracy. Even though in practise this system sounds like it could work I myself do not believe that this new system is going to stop/deter anyone from pirating in any way. There have been many attempts to stop online piracy such as CISPA and SOPA, all of which have failed in everyway as people will go to extreme lengths to keep the internet as free as possible, and even if the new proposed system were to be implemented people would find a way around it as they have always done be this in the form of a proxy server or using a TOR client to browse what has been dubbed the underground internet to get the products that they desire. Because of all of these reasons I believe that this new system will crash and burn without even denting the online piracy scene slightly.

How the internet changed the Music Industry.

Production
Production is one of the lesser places that the internet age has changed the music industry, but never the less it has still changed how music is being produced. Back in the days before the internet musicians would have to travel to the studios of the music producers to get the music recorded which would then be given to distributors to get out to the masses, and this was the only form of production available for musicians. But with the internet age upon us the production of music has had a slight change, artists can now get collaborate online with other musicians creating music together creating opportunities to create a duo track in a studio but also the option to send each other parts of a track and then create a track without ever having to visit a studio is they are an smaller indie artist.

Distribution
Distribution is one of the areas that the internet has changed within the music industry quite a lot. Before the internet was widely available the only was of distributing music was by some form oh physical system, such as records, CDs and tapes which would only be sold in music shops such as HMV. But with the internet becoming widely used distribution became a lot easier and more widespread, indie artists and major artists alike are now able to release music on the internet to stores like iTunes which allow people to digitally download the music onto their PC from anywhere which has an internet connection.

Marketing
Marketing has been one of the areas that has been changed less with the rise of the internet but has been more expanded. In the times before the internet musicians would have to rely on conventional methods such as radio adverts, posters and fliers to promote their music. But with the rise of the internet then the rise of social media has been a big boost to the ways in which artists can promote their music worldwide to all of their fans that can follow them on twitter and also find them on facebook which can be used to advertise new albums, singles and merchandise with links to sites which these products can be bought.

Consumption
Consumption has been changed by the internet very much. Back in the times before the internet the way in which people would be consuming music was very very basic. It would mainly be in the form of playing the music off of a physical medium such as a record, tape and CD allowing them to listen to the music where ever they have the facilities to play it. But with the bandwidth available with current broadband connections people are now able to stream music over the internet using products such as Spotify and Youtube to an extent on any device that will support this.

Exchange
The exchange of music has been around for a while but has greatly been increased through the use of the internet. Back in the day before the internet people would share music using other methods, one of these being recording 'Mix Tapes' using songs being played on the radio or directly copied from other tapes, they would then share these mix tapes around but they would never become globally available. Unlike today in which people can now upload a new album directly to torrent sites such as ThePirateBay which people around the world can then use to download the files and have instant access to this music without paying for it.

To what extent has the internet changed the TV and film industry?

To What Extent Has The Internet Changed The TV And Film Industry?

The internet has been a major factor in the advancement of technology in just about every technological sector, and this does include both the TV and the Film Industry in this technological advancement. Before the days of broadband internet being widely available in pretty much every single household it was a very different era for the TV and Film industry, the main form of change coming in the way that TV and Films were being distributed in these times. If you wanted to watch what very well may have been a VHS back then of the most recently released film you would have to travel down to either your nearest local video rental store or visit one of the major retail stores such as Blockbuster and rent a physical copy of the film which would then have to be brought back into the store after a predetermined time or a charge would be incurred. This was the norm in the rental industry up until the internet revolution.

During this time broadband internet was becoming readily available to just about everyone opening up a huge market gap for both the Film and TV industry to grab a hold of. This new age of the internet came two-fold for the Tv and Film industry, firstly in the form of retail shopping. Stores such as Blockbuster and HMV who where seen to be thriving suddenly became obsolete due to the opening of online retailers such as Amazon and Play.com, this brought a massive hit to brick and mortar stores which can be seen right now due to the closure of both Blockbuster and HMV as most people would rather buy their DvDs from and online retailer instead of travelling out to the store to purchase them, but this is not the only thing that was powering forward online retailers in front of brick and mortar stores as there was also a theory by the name of The Long Tail (2006) by Chris Anderson which came into play. The Long Tail, simply put, states that as stores such as Blockbusters and HMV are limited as to what they can stock they will most likely go for the blockbuster hits first and may stock a few of the lesser known films and Tv series as well, but as online and digital retailers such as Play.com and Amazon are not as restricted with shelf space they can stock a broader spectrum of titles, allowing people who would like to purchase very niche products the chance to with all of these little niche sales almost totalling up to the amount the big blockbuster hits will sell.(More Of Less)

But this is not the only thing that the internet revolution has brought for the Tv and Film industry, Because of the new availability of higher bandwidth packages becoming available things that were just distant ideas such as online video streaming and music streaming where becoming a very near possibility, which as of today sounds ridiculous that a world without on demand video streaming even existed never mind a world without internet entirely but back then this was but a distant dream. Now we take it for granted that sites such as Youtube, Netflix and Lovefilm all exist that we can now watch a massive collection of Tv and Film titles streamed directly to our Home Computers, this created a massive hit for the brick and mortar stores as people did not even have to wait for postal times to watch a massive collection of films now appealing to niche and mainstream markets alike bringing The Long Tail theory back again.

As we can see the new age of digital distribution is being shown to be king in both the TV and film industry, but even they way in which TV is being delivered is not safe in the hands of Netflix. Netflix has very recently launched a new self funded Tv Drama by the name of House of Cards, it is available only on Netflix an has been getting some very positive reviews. But this is not the odd part of what Netflix has done with house of cards, the odd part is the way in which this series has been delivered to the customers. It is customary in TV for a series to be shown with one new episode released each week at a set date and time, and this has been shown to work for countless years helping the audience create a sort of event in which they can play that on this certain day at this certain time is when I watch the episode of this series. They can then also be sure in the knowledge that unless someone else has procured a dodge advanced copy of the series elsewhere that they can have a discussion about the newest episode safely without ruining it for some people who may not have watched the same episode. But this is not the method that Netflix has been using with House of Cards, Netflix has decided to trail out a new delivery system that being that the whole of the first series of House of Cards is instantly available to all Netflix subscribers from the get go, no new episode each week, the whole thing available in one go. This has been met with bot positive and negative views, the positive saying that this is great as it allows people to create their own time for watching as many or as few episode as they would like/have the time for, but many people are also saying that this is ruining the interactive experience that the TV has become with the uprising of Social Media sites(E.g. Twitter and Facebook) meaning that people cannot discuss what is happening in the latest episode being shown as some people may have watched further on and some people may not have reached that point in the series creating massive spoilers for many people.

To conclude there have been many changes to both the Film and TV industry due to the rise of internet technology some of these being positive and some of these being negative. The positives of the internet revolution in the Tv and Film industry are that consumers have now been given a much wider and expansive variety of films to choose from and are also now not limited to what the brick and mortar stores think are going to be selling the best, this means that the consumers now have better experiences in watching films and TV but this is not as good for brick and mortar stores as they as we can see have been left behind and are now redundant in todays current market. Another positive is the ease in which people can now watch TV and film. this is once again a positive for the consumers mostly and a negative for the brick and mortar stores.

The negatives of the internet boom are also bad for distributors and also the content creators themselves as with the rise of digital distribution the pirating scene has also been seen to be growing with this making getting a hold of the newest film and Tv series for free much much easier and almost becoming the norm for some people to get the TV and film that they want. This is very bad for the Film and TV industry as a whole as this means that nobody is getting money for this copy of the the Show / Film meaning that the amount that studios have to produce more content / a sequel  might be greatly reduced. Another downside to the internet boom is the downfall of both little and big brick and mortar stores nationwide. Stores as big as HMV and blockbuster are now going into administration as they have not been able to compete with the likes of Play and Amazon in sales and the rise of online streaming sites such as Lovefilm and Netflix has also had a big impact on these strores.