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Hollywood vs the Online Sharing Monster
By Ni Tao |
June 26, 2010, Saturday
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Print Edition
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IT won't take long for regular visitors to Youku.com and Tudou.com, China's largest video-sharing Websites, to find that many of the films and soap operas have been removed since the country's broadcast watchdog moved to regulate the online video-sharing industry rife with copyright infringement.
The campaign that began late last year is far from sweeping or complete, as many resources survived the purge. But it did achieve some results, as camcorder versions of the latest Hollywood blockbusters could no longer make their way onto these Websites shortly after they premiered.
A great disappointment to the many Internet users accustomed to free content, to be sure. But it also provides some solace to film makers, whose box office takings and DVD sales have long been diminished by online piracy.
Added to the woes of Youku.com and Tudou.com is a string of copyright infringement lawsuits filed against them. The heightened pressure on these two industry leaders coincides with the bid by a host of provincial TV stations to secure state approval to launch their own online video-sharing business.
In a country with nearly 400 million Internet users, the number of Netizens watching online videos reached 240 million by the end of 2009, according to the China Internet Network Information Center. This vast market promises huge potential.
Obviously the action against Websites distributing copies of films, music videos and other multimedia resources without the consent of producers goes well beyond mere protection of intellectual property rights. It is a microcosm of the bitter feud between content providers and information companies -- one made all the more ferocious in an age when virtually everything can be downloaded for free from the Internet.
Things were, are and will always be the same in the US entertainment industry, which has been constantly wary of tech innovations that might eat into their profits, as Philip E. Meza writes in "Coming Attraction: Hollywood, High Tech and the Future of Entertainment." The book chronicles the advent of new technologies and their impact on existing business models.
Despite their deep pockets, US entertainment companies have good reason to fear the high-tech onslaught, since "today's innovations conflict with established industries from the start," the author notes.
For instance, Napster, the software built on peer-to-peer file sharing, encouraged Netizens to share and spread music among themselves. The more people used it, the more music would become available.
This invention worked almost like a viral advertising campaign. So fearsome was it that US recording firms had to unite to smother its growth, Meza says.
But the firms' cynical decisions to fend themselves from the perceived high-tech threat mostly backfired, as today's innovations come at a speed that is harder than ever for content providers to catch up with, let alone control.
As Meza argues, "The record industry was successful in decapitating Napster, but like the hydra from mythology, several more file-sharing services sprang up in its place, each more difficult to stop than Napster."
This spells the end of entertainment companies' futile resistance. They probably have to assume a more pragmatic approach to high-tech development.
Unless a movie is a billion-dollar production directed by someone like James Cameron and promoted with heavy media hype -- like "Avatar" -- it is unlikely to arrest people's attention on first glance in a sea of prosaic works. Due to their limited channels of distribution, some good works may pass unnoticed or become buried under a heap of cultural trash.
By cooperating with information companies, content providers not only can spot new areas for growth but also stand a chance of being noticed should their products fail to win recognition initially, Meza argues.
This raises a difficult question for content providers: should they sue the Websites, like Youku.com, that cash in on materials stolen from them, or should they accommodate these thefts that also bring them wealth?
The campaign that began late last year is far from sweeping or complete, as many resources survived the purge. But it did achieve some results, as camcorder versions of the latest Hollywood blockbusters could no longer make their way onto these Websites shortly after they premiered.
A great disappointment to the many Internet users accustomed to free content, to be sure. But it also provides some solace to film makers, whose box office takings and DVD sales have long been diminished by online piracy.
Added to the woes of Youku.com and Tudou.com is a string of copyright infringement lawsuits filed against them. The heightened pressure on these two industry leaders coincides with the bid by a host of provincial TV stations to secure state approval to launch their own online video-sharing business.
In a country with nearly 400 million Internet users, the number of Netizens watching online videos reached 240 million by the end of 2009, according to the China Internet Network Information Center. This vast market promises huge potential.
Obviously the action against Websites distributing copies of films, music videos and other multimedia resources without the consent of producers goes well beyond mere protection of intellectual property rights. It is a microcosm of the bitter feud between content providers and information companies -- one made all the more ferocious in an age when virtually everything can be downloaded for free from the Internet.
Things were, are and will always be the same in the US entertainment industry, which has been constantly wary of tech innovations that might eat into their profits, as Philip E. Meza writes in "Coming Attraction: Hollywood, High Tech and the Future of Entertainment." The book chronicles the advent of new technologies and their impact on existing business models.
Despite their deep pockets, US entertainment companies have good reason to fear the high-tech onslaught, since "today's innovations conflict with established industries from the start," the author notes.
For instance, Napster, the software built on peer-to-peer file sharing, encouraged Netizens to share and spread music among themselves. The more people used it, the more music would become available.
This invention worked almost like a viral advertising campaign. So fearsome was it that US recording firms had to unite to smother its growth, Meza says.
But the firms' cynical decisions to fend themselves from the perceived high-tech threat mostly backfired, as today's innovations come at a speed that is harder than ever for content providers to catch up with, let alone control.
As Meza argues, "The record industry was successful in decapitating Napster, but like the hydra from mythology, several more file-sharing services sprang up in its place, each more difficult to stop than Napster."
This spells the end of entertainment companies' futile resistance. They probably have to assume a more pragmatic approach to high-tech development.
Unless a movie is a billion-dollar production directed by someone like James Cameron and promoted with heavy media hype -- like "Avatar" -- it is unlikely to arrest people's attention on first glance in a sea of prosaic works. Due to their limited channels of distribution, some good works may pass unnoticed or become buried under a heap of cultural trash.
By cooperating with information companies, content providers not only can spot new areas for growth but also stand a chance of being noticed should their products fail to win recognition initially, Meza argues.
This raises a difficult question for content providers: should they sue the Websites, like Youku.com, that cash in on materials stolen from them, or should they accommodate these thefts that also bring them wealth?
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