The Day Music Died Quiz

A.) 1.) DVD piracy in Hollywood (economic consequence):
The explosion of free movie downloads coupled with the hype around YouTube and 
other video sites have caused a decline in box-office revenue and DVD sales. According to a LEK report, $18.2 billion of losses have been incurred to the $44.8 billion global revenue figures for the movie industry in 2004 have been stemmed 
from Internet piracy at $2.3 billion, another $2.4 billion from street sales of bootleg DVD’s and $1.4 billion from films being illegally copied in movie theaters. The American movie business is in big trouble. Movie theater admissions and DVD sales have both dropped significantly. Jobs have been cut by powerhouse entities such as Warner Brothers and Walt Disney. With the increasing easy of downloading videos from the internet, these growing concerns of movie and DVD sales show no signs of retarding.



I don’t doubt that DVD sales and theater attendance are on the decline as a 
symptom of the internet and increased popularity of illegally downloading 
movies, but in an attempt to better understand why this is occurring, we should 
look at the movie industry over time. In the years since I have been alive, 
movie prices have spiked dramatically. Eight to ten years ago, movie prices 
were half of what they are today. The internet now allows us to view movies 
ahead of their release and at a much discounted price, essentially free. In 
America, we are all about convenience and getting what we want at the lowest 
possible price. The internet has made this possible and the increased price of 
movie tickets and refreshments are not helping the industry from a teenagers 
point of view. 



2.) Books and bookstores (value consequence):
Andrew Keen expressed a concern around the technology that has emerged allowing the digitization and infinite copying 
of texts leading to a, “overthrow hundreds of years of copyright protection”. There is 
concern around the idea that due to the lack of security around intellectual property from piracy, texts should be free. It sounds as if all attempts to 
prevent this should be stopped since we can’t do anything about it anyway. In 
essence, great works of writing are no longer important, instead, the way they 
are linked and change is made to the original text is important. 

Kelly argues that, “instead of making money on the sales of books, authors can sell performances, access to the creator, personalization, add-on information, sponsorship, periodic subscriptions – in short, all the many values that cannot be copied.”

I think this concept is a little extreme. Books are not copied nearly as much as DVD’s are. For one, they are much harder to copy and there is less of a demand for copied books. Kelly’s idea of writers becoming performers and promoting add-on information would take away the value that authors add to society. Writers are not performers; they are writers. This switch from script to action would hinder our literary world as we know it. I believe the value consequence of books that we are now faced with is generation x not reading as much as they use to. As we were confronted with in the Frontline program featuring the internet, many teenagers no longer read the books they assigned to read in school; instead they use spark notes or use other methods of research to understand the texts they are required to for school.

3.)

 Another institution that is being threatened is American television stations. More and more people are using TiVo, DVR’s, or downloading shows through the internet using software like Torrent or Azureus. The number of commercials that are played in between show segments has risen dramatically in an effort to earn the studios more money. People are realizing how much they are being bombarded with advertising propaganda and have found a loophole by watching these programs online. As a result, the revenues for local broadcasting companies has fallen, “9 percent in 2005 to $16.8 billion”.

Whether is be from lack or time or lack of interest, American’s are steadily finding new ways to watch the television shows they enjoy. I certainly agree with Andrew on the threat that this poses to broadcasting stations. The world of entertainment rakes in large sums of money for America and with the easy of downloading hit shows, this puts the television stations in a rough spot. I don’t that TV will die out, but as lives become busier and busier, I believe television will be cut down for the older generations but blossom for the younger generations especially with the increase of advertising toward them and progressing laziness.

B.) These among other consequences that may or already have risen from the Web 2.0, Andrew Keen makes a comparison of these to Sir Thomas Moore’s novel, Utopia from which the quote, “sheep are devouring men” refers to laws that banned peasants from the fields which in turn formed the underclass. A correlation is drawn between computers consuming journalists leaving them jobless and with low incomes. The idea of computers relates to the peasant. Keen is implying that many people are being hurt by the webs advancements. And these advancements are leaving them without jobs and no jobs to go into after the loss of their favored jobs.