Free Ride - How Digital Parasites are Destroying the Culture Business...

[terryhart]

Great video from the World Copyright Summit of former Billboard editor Rob Levine talking about his new book, 'Free Ride: How Digital Parasites are Destroying the Culture Business, and How the Culture Business Can Fight Back' (coming out in October).

Video of the Keynote conversation “Taking control of the digital challenges” with Robert Levine | World Copyright Summit

(Sorry, can't figure out how to embed the vid here, it's not on YouTube.)

US author and business journalist Robert Levine offers some food for thought in this keynote conversation. In his forthcoming book Free Ride – How the Digital Parasites Are Destroying the Culture Business, and How the Culture Business Can Fight Back (Random House) Levine provides an alternative view to the ‘internet-is-free’ discourse and delivers a call-to-action to content owners.

Lot of great stuff in it. Rob covers a lot of stuff that many have been saying in these forums for years.

The book is great too (I got to read an advance copy). The interviewer calls it 'compulsory reading', and I agree.

[Whitecat]

OK, we're going to start again with this thread. Please keep it on topic and take the bickering somewhere else!

[chrisso]

I'll say again - I like the guy and what he has to say.
Nice to know you're not alone.

[John Eppstein]

Originally Posted by whitecat

OK, we're going to start again with this thread. Please keep it on topic and take the bickering somewhere else!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by chrisso

I'll say again - I like the guy and what he has to say.
Nice to know you're not alone.

[AwwDeOhh]

Thanks for the heads-up Terry!

[terryhart]

How the internet has all but destroyed the market for films, music and newspapers | Media | The Observer

Op-ed by Rob Levine, talking about the issues he raises in his book, out now in the UK (out in the US in October).

[AwwDeOhh]

Good article, sums up the problem nicely.

the "comments" section is filled with the same EFF BS that's spouted by a few industry outsiders that post here.. of which whom i will not name (mainly because they change their handle every 3 months..).
The author engaging in the comments brings some sanity to that though.
Thanks again Terry.

[terryhart]

Nice review of the book: Gunning for the copyright reformers | Technology | guardian.co.uk


This part reminded me of a recent discussion on these boards:

The book's most spectacular deconstruction involves Lawrence Lessig. The Harvard law professor is one of the most outspoken opponents of tough copyright. For years, he's been criss-crossing the world delivering well-crafted, compelling presentations about the need to overhaul copyright. When, in 2007, Viacom sued YouTube for copyright infringement, seeking more than $1bn in damages, Lessig accused Viacom of trying to overturn the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. It was a de facto defense of Google by Lessig who at the time was head of the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford University. What Lessig failed to disclose is that two weeks after closing the deal to acquire YouTube, Google made a $2m donation to the Stanford Center, and a year later gave another $1.5m to Creative Commons, Lessig's most famous intellectual baby. To be fair, Levine told me he didn't believe Lessig's positions on copyright were influenced by the grants from Google. Moreover, Google set aside $100m to fight the Viacom lawsuit. Numerous examples throughout Free Ride show how technology companies are committed to influence public policy. Ironically, Lawrence Lessig's newest crusade at Harvard is about corruption in Washington.

[Bob Olhsson]

I hope people realize that the EFF that hatched Creative Commons was started by Mitch Kapor while he was a Silicon Valley investment banker and funded entirely by tech industry corporations.

[rack gear]

Originally Posted by Bob Olhsson

I hope people realize that the EFF that hatched Creative Commons was started by Mitch Kapor while he was a Silicon Valley investment banker and funded entirely by tech industry corporations.

yup...
The world has gone mad.

[Don Hills]

Originally Posted by Bob Olhsson

... the EFF that hatched Creative Commons ...

They're not perfect, Bob. They don't get it wrong every time.

[rack gear]

The book is an absolute must read:
Amazon.com: Free Ride: How Digital Parasites are Destroying the Culture Business, and How the Culture Business Can Fight Back (9780385533768): Robert Levine: Books



I'm only two chapters in and it is the most accurate history, and lucid retelling of how the record industry got here that I've ever seen, both good and bad.