Entertainment in the 21st Century: Is an Independent Networked Multimedia Production and Promotion Firm a Viable Business Option in the Modern Entertainment Industry?

“Artists are being stifled by the ‘major label’ stance that exclusively demands what’s ours is ours and can only be handled by us. It should be more about creative freedom” (Monstercat Manifesto). Over the past fifteen years, we have witnessed how the internet has changed how entertainment is distributed and consumed. This has led to a change in behavior from major entertainment production firms, and has given way to the surge of independent labels and production houses. Now, entertainers can lead successful careers by reaching their audience through digital platforms, successfully decreasing production and distribution costs. Consumers can find an unlimited amount of ad-supported content that they can access for free. Understanding these change is vital in finding and solving the problems these changes have produced

Comment: Copyright\u27s Public-Private Distinction

I would like to focus my remarks on the question of user privacy. In her fascinating paper for this Symposium, Professor Litman expresses a guarded optimism that in its forthcoming decision in MGM v. Grokster, I the Court will retain the staple article of commerce doctrine that it first articulated in Sony. She opines, however, that the user privacy strand of the Sony decision is a lost cause. I don\u27t believe that it\u27s possible to retain the staple article of commerce doctrine while abandoning user privacy. At least in the realm of networked digital technologies, the two concepts are inextricably linked. To explain why, I would like to begin by examining a concept that I\u27ll call copyright\u27s public-private distinction. This distinction does not concern the presence or absence of state action, but rather the presence or absence of conduct triggering legal accountability

Determinants in the on-line distribution of digital content: an exploratory analysis

This article shows the phases – and discusses the results – of an empirical analysis addressing the legal business models that are adopted online to distribute digital content

On the altered states of machine vision: Trevor Paglen, Hito Steyerl, Grégory Chatonsky

The landscape of contemporary visual culture and contemporary artistic practices is currently undergoing profound transformations caused by the application of technologies of machine learning to the vast domain of networked digital images. The impact of such technologies is so profound that it leads us to raise the very question of what we mean by “vision” and “image” in the age of artificial intelligence. This paper will focus on the work of three artists – Trevor Paglen, Hito Steyerl, Grégory Chatonsky – who have recently employed technologies of machine learning in non-standard ways. Rather than using them to train systems of machine vision with their different operations (face and emotion recognition, object and movement detection, etc.) and their different fields of application (surveillance, policing, process control, driverless vehicle guidance, etc.), they have used them in order to produce entirely new images, never seen before, that they present as altered states of the machine itself

Robo-line storage: Low latency, high capacity storage systems over geographically distributed networks

Rapid advances in high performance computing are making possible more complete and accurate computer-based modeling of complex physical phenomena, such as weather front interactions, dynamics of chemical reactions, numerical aerodynamic analysis of airframes, and ocean-land-atmosphere interactions. Many of these 'grand challenge' applications are as demanding of the underlying storage system, in terms of their capacity and bandwidth requirements, as they are on the computational power of the processor. A global view of the Earth's ocean chlorophyll and land vegetation requires over 2 terabytes of raw satellite image data. In this paper, we describe our planned research program in high capacity, high bandwidth storage systems. The project has four overall goals. First, we will examine new methods for high capacity storage systems, made possible by low cost, small form factor magnetic and optical tape systems. Second, access to the storage system will be low latency and high bandwidth. To achieve this, we must interleave data transfer at all levels of the storage system, including devices, controllers, servers, and communications links. Latency will be reduced by extensive caching throughout the storage hierarchy. Third, we will provide effective management of a storage hierarchy, extending the techniques already developed for the Log Structured File System. Finally, we will construct a protototype high capacity file server, suitable for use on the National Research and Education Network (NREN). Such research must be a Cornerstone of any coherent program in high performance computing and communications

Optical disks become erasable

The topics covered include the following: optical recording; how does it work?; why all the fuss?; state of the industry; sample applications; and future directions

Special Issue on the AMCIS 2001 Workshops: A Three Level Approach to Managing Curricular Technology Integration Strategically at Bentley College

This paper presents an overview of the unprecedented array of technologies that are employed at Bentley College. These technologies are used in traditional, on-campus courses, and in videoconference and web-based distance learning courses. The paper discusses how Bentley approaches the integration of technology into the curriculum, guided by a three-level approach

Creeping decay: cult soundtracks, residual media, and digital technologies

This paper explores the recent resurgence in the collecting of cult film soundtracks, in particular films stemming from the late 1960s to the early 1980s and often linked to horror and other modes of exploitation cinema. I consider this phenomenon as an important component of cult film fandom, but one which has largely been overlooked in cult cinema research because it is often considered as belonging to popular music, as opposed to film, research. As films can become cultified in many different ways and across different media, I look into how areas of music culture can both be inspired by, as well as influence, aspects of film culture. The paper also addresses the importance of ‘residual’ technologies within cult film/music cultures, noting in particular the preference for vinyl records as well as VHS tapes in certain cult fan communities, and explores the appeal that such ‘old media’ retain within an increasingly digital mediascape

The book an adaptation from the film: technology, narrative, business & how the book industry might adapt the film

This paper proposes that the book, both its form and the book publishing industry that support it can make reference to how the film industry have reacted to technological change since the 1980 's. This can be done in such a way to transform how a book is marketed, published and perhaps read. Epstein (2010) describes how the film industry profited despites its best efforts, from technological advances. The book industry has an opportunity to learn both from the film and record industries using both industries as case studies to support the book's transition to a supporting digital format. There is an opportunity to make the debate not about Kindle versus Ipad, open-source ePub format versus locked down Kindle but about how to use non-linearity, choice vs control, structure and storytelling in a creative fashion. What is the book? It is more than its physical form. It is an experience. Current industry marketing practices, for instance the book review, the audio book, speaking tours all lend themselves to a multimedia approach that can reinforce the position of the book and the reading of the book in today's creative cultural environment