Content Holders Vs. The Wed: 2008 Us Copyright Law Victories Point To Robust Internet

摘要

The advent of digitalization and the Internet has shaken the foundations of the large recording and filmmaking corporations, whose wealth is measured in the ownership of intellectual property. Technology has simply erased the barriers to entry that once restricted content creation to the few and, in doing so, has eroded their monopoly position. The Big 4 recording companies, once considered necessary to the success of musical artists, are seeing their monopoly position erode as performers now find themselves able to market their music directly to the entire world, either without the use of middlemen at all or by selecting middlemen who are numerous and who must compete for their business. The Big 6 motion picture studios, once considered necessary to the success of film makers, are now on the losing end of a competition with everyday people, many of them teenagers, who are creating user-generated content at a dizzying rate, armed with no more than an inexpensive digital camera, videocam, or even a video-capable cell phone. These budding filmmakers likewise have access to the entire world, and for free.