An Analysis of New Media, Technology, and the Piracy Culture

An Analysis of New Media, Technology, and the Piracy Culture
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An Analysis of New Media, Technology, and the Piracy Culture
Background
The world today is characterized by many changes, including technological advancement and the rise of new media, which has continued to shape the modern world. The introduction of cable television, the widened access to the internet, and the increased digitization of media have given rise to new media trends and attracted the attention of scholars. As Lister et al. (2009) reveals, there has been an increase in the migration of media content and immense changes in how media is produced, distributed, and consumed around the globe. The rise of new media has affected not only producers but also consumers of media such that now consumers can be producers of media as well. It has also changed how society approaches intellectual properties and intellectual property rights. As Lessig (2006) discusses in his book, there has been an increasing debate about intellectual property with the rise of new media and the advancement of technology. Now more than ever, governments are getting involved in protecting intellectual property through the law. This is because the rise of new media and technologies has been accompanied by a shift in the piracy culture. The internet has facilitated digital reproduction, and new technologies have been developed to facilitate storage, re-use, and reproduction of digital content at very low costs (Lister et al., 2009). More and more people are copying and sharing digital content, giving rise to questions of ownership. However, artistic or creative content is being copyrighted, and those looking to reproduce artistic work are paying royalties (Brown, 2003). Yet, the culture of piracy is still rampant in today’s society and continues to harm the creative industries. This shows that there exists a relationship between new media, technology, and the piracy culture. This research paper aims to analyze this relationship and establish how practitioners in the creative industries can balance this relationship to protect the value of their work.
Statement of the Research Problem and Guiding Research Questions
Both practitioners acknowledge the importance of protecting the value of creative work in creative industries and governments from around the world. This is why copyright laws and intellectual property rights exist around the world. However, as Poster (2006) reveals, copyright laws and intellectual property rights are constantly being challenged every day. There seems to be little understanding and low consensus about what characterizes a piracy culture because the rise of new media and the continued advancement in technology is constantly changing how media content is being produced, shared, consumed, and pirated. Although piracy, in general, is characterized by stealing someone else’s artistic/creative work, there have been changes in how this is done and for what purpose. As Lessig (2006) indicates, some forms of piracy are characterized by selling copyrighted materials for a profit, while others are characterized by peer-to-peer sharing of copyrighted material for personal use. Whether the latter is wrong or right is a topic of debate. According to Poster (2006), peer-to-peer sharing of digital content is slowly becoming a preferred method of exchanging content. As such, there is a need to understand how the media industry is characterizing new media trends and technologies, piracy, and how these have affected its ability to maintain control over its content. Without such understanding, it will become difficult to enhance the value of new media and digitization while minimizing the harm caused by the pirate culture. To create a better understanding, it is important to discuss the interrelationship among new media content ownership, technology, and piracy and analyze how these have changed over the years. The following research questions will be addressed to paint a clear picture and create a better understanding of the issue:
1 How has the piracy culture changed over the years as more media content becomes digitized?
2 How have the advancement of technology and the development of new media influenced the piracy culture?
3 What are the effects of the piracy culture on the media industry?
4 How can the interrelationship between new media, technology, and the piracy culture be addressed to enhance the value of artistic work?
General and Specific Objectives
The general objective of this research paper is to analyze the interconnectedness among new media, technology, and the piracy culture to create a better understanding for creative industries’ practitioners. The specific objectives are:
1 To explore how the piracy culture has changed over the years
2 To determine how the advancement of technology and the development of new media has influenced the piracy culture
3 To examine the effect of the piracy culture on media
4 To establish how the relationship among new media, technology, and the piracy culture can be balanced to protect the value of artistic work
Literature Review
The piracy culture has been around for decades. However, it has changed as the media industry continues to experience changes due to the digitization of media content. As a result of technology advancement and digitization, the piracy culture has shifted to include peer-to-peer sharing of files. In addition, digitization and technological advancements have necessitated new ways of addressing piracy. According to Wang (2016), new ways of monetizing online content are being developed because the approaches that were used to address piracy in the past are now ineffective. On-demand distribution and online subscri...