This NYTimes article, taken from the Money and Business section, concerns the severity of the impact that the advent of file sharing has had on the music industry. It is noted that, since the availability of Napster, the value of the music industry’s inflation adjusted sales in this country has dropped by more than half. It is estimated that 95% of music downloads are unauthorized; artists and producers see nary a cent in exchange for the music they have so arduously composed, produced, and marketed. (This statistic (offered by the Recording Industry Association of America) applies not only to the sale of actual CDs / albums, but also to sales of iTunes music store.
Now, this isn’t exactly new information to anyone. Internet piracy is rampant, that we all know. What has taken me be surprise is the fact that such activity is not just affecting the music, film and television industries, but the publishing industry as well. As a result of the development of the e-Book, more and more consumers are indulging their literary tastes via digital technology instead of actual books. This is quite alarming to me. I know of many aspiring writers who constantly lament the increasing difficulty of ‘breaking into’ the publishing industry and gaining notice in the public eye. Should publishing houses begin to suffer financially from the widespread file sharing of books, the market for new manuscript material will only be adversely affected.
Writing is a full time commitment, one which can exact a significant toll on the writer in terms of time, energy and exhaustion. To not receive just compensation for the effort put into composition and repeat revision strikes me as criminal. For me, the question becomes: how can the courts and the affected industries fight back against the piracy?
I hear of many complaints, but few solutions.
Is there any way to safeguard against the theft of one’s art?
October 12, 2009 at 4:12 pm |
This was an interesting way to get your point across about the digital age and what it means to actual writers. The digital age is allowing more and more people to take credit and have other peoples works which is criminal but is becoming more and more accepting. This would definently be a valuable topic for a module.