A critical analysis of the effect of copyright infringement on the UK film and cinema industries

Film studios and major cinema operators strongly contend that copyright infringement, commonly known as piracy, is costing the worldwide industry many billions of dollars in lost revenue. A number of senior industry figures, as well as other commentators, foresee the industry’s slow death due to illegal consumption. Consequently, for the past two decades the industry has lobbied governments and legislators to provide legislation that restricts illegal online access to their product. During this period, however, the industry has witnessed significant growth in worldwide box office returns, admissions, film production investment and in the number and quality of cinema available for the exhibition of films. These two observations appear to be at odds. Arguing that film, and especially cinemas, provide socio-cultural as well as economic benefits, this thesis critically examines the industry and academic evidence pointing to the quantum of revenue loss, as well as academic evidence examining the effectiveness of the legal measures that the industry has been successful in establishing. The thesis reaches two conclusions. First, the equivocal nature of research findings regarding revenue losses suggests that estimates of infringement revenue effects appear to have been overstated. Second, the effectiveness of legal measures appears to be in doubt, with any positive effects being short-lived. However, it is argued that the equivocality of the evidence does not permit the counterfactual conclusion that the industry is totally unaffected by copyright infringement, or that legal measures are totally ineffective. Alternative perspectives and their implications are discussed

Cyberprints: Identifying Cyber Attackers by Feature Analysis

The problem of attributing cyber attacks is one of increasing importance. Without a solid method of demonstrating the origin of a cyber attack, any attempts to deter would-be cyber attackers are wasted. Existing methods of attribution make unfounded assumptions about the environment in which they will operate: omniscience (the ability to gather, store, and analyze any data relevant to an attack), omnipresence (the ability to place sensors wherever necessary regardless of jurisdiction or ownership), and \emph{a priori} positioning (ignorance of the real costs of placing sensors in speculative locations). The reality is that attribution must be able to occur with only the information available directly to a forensic analyst, gathered within the target network, using budget-conscious placement of sensors and analyzers. These assumptions require a new form of attribution. This work evaluates the use of a number of network-level features as an analog of stylistic markers in literature. We find that principal component analysis is not a useful tool in analyzing these features. We are, however, able to perform Kolmogorov-Smirnov comparisons upon the feature set distributions directly to find a subset of the examined features which hold promise for forming the foundation of a \emph{Cyberprint}. This foundation could be used to examine other potential features for discriminatory power, and to establish a new direction for network forensic analysis

Pirates, Hydras, Trolls, and... Authors? On the Authorial Capacities of Digital Media Piracy

In this thesis, I undertake a positive analysis of digital media piracy to examine the movement’s authorial capacities. Proposed by James Meese as a way of looking beyond the traditional “piracy is theft” framework, this perspective offers new insights about how the increasingly mundane act of downloading and sharing media files can incite social change. I begin by examining what it means to be a digital media pirate, and how that question is part of the construction of the piracy movement. In the second chapter, I explore the complex relationship between piracy and information capitalism, highlighting how piracy arises from within information capitalism. In the third chapter, I look to how moral panic discourse has been used to demonize pirates, but also how this process has been appropriated by pirates to circulate counter-hegemonic discourse. In the fourth chapter, I examine how pirates are the authors of alternative ethical criteria within private filesharing communities, and how pirates mobilize moral and ethical discourse to push back against attempts to impede their ability to pursue a good piratical life. The final chapter of this thesis takes up the ethnographically rich moment of the Kickass Torrents shutdown in July 2016. Looking at the shut down as an event that like digital media piracy is both meaningful yet mundane, we see how pirates, though contesting romanticized and naturalized norms of property and authorship, push for a new form of authorship constituted by p2p communication in online spaces. Through these perspectives on the piracy movement in the summer of 2016, I argue that through the agglomerated effects of individual acts of piracy, the broader piracy movement radically changes the ways we understand and engage with cultural media objects

The durable internet: preserving network neutrality without regulation

An important reason for the Internet\u27s remarkable growth over the last quarter century is the "end-to-end" principle that networks should confine themselves to transmitting generic packets without worrying about their contents. Not only has this made deployment of internet infrastructure cheap and efficient, but it has created fertile ground for entrepreneurship. On a network that respects the end-to-end principle, prior approval from network owners is not needed to launch new applications, services, or content. In recent years, self-styled "network neutrality" activists have pushed for legislation to prevent network owners from undermining the end-to end principle. Although the concern is understandable, such legislation would be premature. Physical ownership of internet infrastructure does not translate into a practical ability to control its use. Regulations are unnecessary because even in the absence of robust broadband competition, network owners are likely to find deviations from the end-to-end principle unprofitable

Blown to Bits: Your Life, Liberty, and Happiness After the Digital Explosion

382 p.Libro ElectrónicoEach of us has been in the computing field for more than 40 years. The book is the product of a lifetime of observing and participating in the changes it has brought. Each of us has been both a teacher and a learner in the field. This book emerged from a general education course we have taught at Harvard, but it is not a textbook. We wrote this book to share what wisdom we have with as many people as we can reach. We try to paint a big picture, with dozens of illuminating anecdotes as the brushstrokes. We aim to entertain you at the same time as we provoke your thinking.Preface Chapter 1 Digital Explosion Why Is It Happening, and What Is at Stake? The Explosion of Bits, and Everything Else The Koans of Bits Good and Ill, Promise and Peril Chapter 2 Naked in the Sunlight Privacy Lost, Privacy Abandoned 1984 Is Here, and We Like It Footprints and Fingerprints Why We Lost Our Privacy, or Gave It Away Little Brother Is Watching Big Brother, Abroad and in the U.S. Technology Change and Lifestyle Change Beyond Privacy Chapter 3 Ghosts in the Machine Secrets and Surprises of Electronic Documents What You See Is Not What the Computer Knows Representation, Reality, and Illusion Hiding Information in Images The Scary Secrets of Old Disks Chapter 4 Needles in the Haystack Google and Other Brokers in the Bits Bazaar Found After Seventy Years The Library and the Bazaar The Fall of Hierarchy It Matters How It Works Who Pays, and for What? Search Is Power You Searched for WHAT? Tracking Searches Regulating or Replacing the Brokers Chapter 5 Secret Bits How Codes Became Unbreakable Encryption in the Hands of Terrorists, and Everyone Else Historical Cryptography Lessons for the Internet Age Secrecy Changes Forever Cryptography for Everyone Cryptography Unsettled Chapter 6 Balance Toppled Who Owns the Bits? Automated Crimes—Automated Justice NET Act Makes Sharing a Crime The Peer-to-Peer Upheaval Sharing Goes Decentralized Authorized Use Only Forbidden Technology Copyright Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance The Limits of Property Chapter 7 You Can’t Say That on the Internet Guarding the Frontiers of Digital Expression Do You Know Where Your Child Is on the Web Tonight? Metaphors for Something Unlike Anything Else Publisher or Distributor? Neither Liberty nor Security The Nastiest Place on Earth The Most Participatory Form of Mass Speech Protecting Good Samaritans—and a Few Bad Ones Laws of Unintended Consequences Can the Internet Be Like a Magazine Store? Let Your Fingers Do the Stalking Like an Annoying Telephone Call? Digital Protection, Digital Censorship—and Self-Censorship Chapter 8 Bits in the Air Old Metaphors, New Technologies, and Free Speech Censoring the President How Broadcasting Became Regulated The Path to Spectrum Deregulation What Does the Future Hold for Radio? Conclusion After the Explosion Bits Lighting Up the World A Few Bits in Conclusion Appendix The Internet as System and Spirit The Internet as a Communication System The Internet Spirit Endnotes Inde

Net Neutrality and the Battle for the Open Internet

“Net neutrality,” a dry but crucial standard of openness in network access, began as a technical principle informing obscure policy debates but became the flashpoint for an all-out political battle for the future of communications and culture. Net Neutrality and the Battle for the Open Internet is a critical cultural history of net neutrality that reveals how this intentionally “boring” world of internet infrastructure and regulation hides a fascinating and pivotal sphere of power, with lessons for communication and media scholars, activists, and anyone interested in technology and politics. While previous studies and academic discussions of net neutrality have been dominated by legal, economic, and technical perspectives, Net Neutrality and the Battle for the Open Internet offers a humanities-based critical theoretical approach, telling the story of how activists and millions of everyday people, online and in the streets, were able to challenge the power of the phone and cable corporations that historically dominated communications policy-making to advance equality and justice in media and technology

Youth as E-Citizens: Engaging the Digital Generation

"Youth as E-Citizens: Engaging the Digital Generation" provides a groundbreaking overview of Web-based efforts to increase youth civic engagement. Beginning with a close-up examination of website content, the report also examines the organizations and institutions creating that content, and the larger environment in which civic sites function. The full report offers:Case studies of high-profile sites' strategies for launch, visibility and funding; the online response to 9/11; and online youth activism.Discussion of the potential that websites offer to build lasting habits of civic involvement. Current developments in technology, regulation and law that raise urgent questions about the viability of the civic Web.In addition, the project has created an online showcase of top youth civic websites. To see how they use the Internet to facilitate civic involvement and learning, take the Online Tour (http://centerforsocialmedia.org/ecitizens/index.htm)!"Youth as E-Citizens" was initiated by the Center for Media Education. With the closing of the Center in the fall of 2003, the project joined the Center for Social Media. Initial funding for this multi-year research project was provided by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE). The Ford Foundation, the Open Society Institute, the Packard Foundation, and the Surdna Foundation also provided critical support

Peers, pirates, and persuasion : rhetoric in the peer-to-peer debates

x, 173 p. : il. ; 23 cm.Libro ElectrónicoPeers, Pirates, and Persuasion: Rhetoric in the Peer-to-Peer Debates investigates the role of rhetoric in shaping public perceptions about a novel technology: peer-to-peer file-sharing networks. While broadband Internet services now allow speedy transfers of complex media files, Americans face real uncertainty about whether peer-to-peer file sharing is or should be legal. John Logie analyzes the public arguments growing out of more than five years of debate sparked by the advent of Napster, the first widely adopted peer-to-peer technology. The debate continues with the second wave of peer-to-peer file transfer utilities like Limewire, KaZaA, and BitTorrent. With Peers, Pirates, and Persuasion, Logie joins the likes of Lawrence Lessig, Siva Vaidhyanathan, Jessica Litman, and James Boyle in the ongoing effort to challenge and change current copyright law so that it fulfills its purpose of fostering creativity and innovation while protecting the rights of artists in an attention economy. Logie examines metaphoric frames—warfare, theft, piracy, sharing, and hacking, for example—that dominate the peer-to-peer debates and demonstrably shape public policy on the use and exchange of digital media. Peers, Pirates, and Persuasion identifies the Napster case as a failed opportunity for a productive national discussion on intellectual property rights and responsibilities in digital environments. Logie closes by examining the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the “Grokster” case, in which leading peer-to-peer companies were found to be actively inducing copyright infringement. The Grokster case, Logie contends, has already produced the chilling effects that will stifle the innovative spirit at the heart of the Internet and networked communities.Illustrations Acknowledgments 1 Introduction: The Cat Is Out of the Bag 2 Hackers, Crackers, and the Criminalization of Peer-to-Peer Technologies 3 The Positioning of Peer-to-Peer Transfers as Theft 4 Peer-to-Peer Technologies as Piracy 5 The Problem of “Sharing” in Digital Environments 6 Peer-to-Peer as Combat 7 Conclusion: The Cat Came Back Appendix: On Images and Permissions Works Cited Inde

The Informal Screen Media Economy of Ukraine

This research explores informal film translation (voice over and subtitling) and distribution (pirate streaming and torrenting) practices in Ukraine, which together comprise what I call the informal screen media economy of Ukraine. This study addresses wider issues of debate around the distinct reasons media piracy exists in non-Western economies. There is already a considerable body of research on piracy outside of the traditional anti-piracy discourse, one that recognises that informal media are not all unequivocally destructive nor that they are necessarily marginal, particularly in non-Western countries. Yet, there remain gaps in the range of geographies and specific types of pirate practices being studied. Furthermore, academics often insufficiently address the intricate conditions of the context within which a given pirate activity is undertaken. Finally, whereas many researchers talk about pirates, considerably fewer talk to them. This project sets out to address these gaps. Specifically, I examine the distinct practicalities of the informal screen media practices in Ukraine through netnographic observations of pirate sites and in-depth interviews with the Ukrainian informal screen media practitioners. I explore their notably diverse motivations for engaging in these activities and how they negotiate their practices with the complex economic, cultural, and regulatory context of Ukraine. I find that, contrary to common perceptions, the Ukrainian pirates do not oppose the copyright law but operate largely within and around it. A more important factor in piracy in Ukraine instead is the economics of the Ukrainian language. This is reflected in the language exclusivity inherent to most Ukrainian pirate distribution platforms as well as in the motives of some informal translators, for whom their practice is a form of language activism. Overall, I argue for a more holistic approach to researching the informal space of the media economy, especially in non-Western contexts, one that recognises the heterogeneity of this space and explores accordingly intricate factors behind its existence. In addition, this project offers a methodological contribution by providing a detailed reflection on the use of ethnographic methods to study a pirate economy in a non-Western, non-anglophone country