Global Entertainment Business

Shakespeare said in The Merry Wives of Windor that "the world is your oyster (Act 2, Scene 2, 2-5)." Meaning life is full of endless possibilities. But what would life on earth really be without all the lovely benefits of creativity? And since over 70 percent of the earth's landscape is made-up of water, it would probably be nothing more than a huge sea of eternal darkness without it. In the chapters of The Entertainment Marketing Revolution: Bringing the Moguls, the Media, and the Magic to the World by Al Lieberman with Patricia Esgate, it is asserted that “somewhere along the lines, there has to be the heart of the movie, the book, the script, the score–the creative idea." Bringing facts to bear about the creative component in global entertainment business and content marketing for that matter— it is indispensable. But more importantly, it is virtually consumed through all things digital which involves a digital creative process within a digital space that is driven by atomized 'bits' of rich media content. That rich media content situated between cross-platform universes of digital technology including, but not limited to: 

• TV 
• Cable  
• Broadband 
• Mobile Devices
• Internet

Moreover, the scores of content marketers and people worldwide that contribute to this digital creative process within the digital space in many ways alter what fuels, drives, and defines "the soul of entertainment" while giving impetus to its high-tech appeal. A high-tech appeal that certainly attract diverse audiences into the fold, but presents content marketers with challenges when trying to keep pace with the speed at which public opinion’s fluctuate, tastes change, trends shift, and information travels. An explicit dynamic that Lieberman describes as Perishability, and that of which he further laments about as being a 'game changer', as well as a "driving force behind the so called rat race" in the field of entertainment. Or further still, a system within a market that is readily exploited by those content marketers most proficient at “simultaneously producing, promoting, distributing, and transacting with consumers.” In other words, the entertainment industry is a fickle market, according to Lieberman. What is popular today could very well be passe' tomorrow. The only indelible truth in the field of entertainment is the fact that the digital creative process is heavily anchored by high quality content. And high quality content is unequivocally King in today's information age. It is a real force to be reckoned with nowadays, especially when it comes to launching Internet Marketing, Social Media Marketing, and Viral Marketing campaigns (among other things), whether in the field or outside the field of global entertainment business.

Such being the case, it was deemed imperative long ago that specific control measures be instituted to prevent unauthorized reproduction and/or use of it. First enacted into law at the Universal Copyright Convention in Geneva, as an alternative to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, but later adopted by the United States and administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) were the following conditions:

“…Protection that covers published and unpublished literary, scientific and artistic works, whatever the form of expression provided such works are fixed in a tangible or material form. This means that if you can see it, hear it and/or touch it - it may be protected. If it is an essay, if it is a play, if it is a song, if it is a funky original dance move, if it is a photograph, HTML coding or a computer graphic that can be set on paper, recorded on tape or saved to a hard drive, it may be protected. Copyright laws grant the creator the exclusive right to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute, perform and display the work publicly. Exclusive means only the creator of such work, not anybody who has access to it and decides to grab it.”

According to fact sheet P-08 of the Berne Convention, it should also be noted that certain actions are prohibited without the permission of the copyright owner, who retain exclusive rights to their works or high quality content for the minimum duration period that copyright awards. Rights such as the following:  

• The right to authorize translations of the work.
• The exclusive right to reproduce the work, though some provisions are made under national laws which typically allow limited private and educational use without infringement.
• The right to authorize public performance or broadcast, and the communication of broadcasts and public performances.
• The right to authorize arrangements or other types of adaptation to the work.
• Recitation of the work, (or of a translation of the work).
• The exclusive right to adapt or alter the work.

The author also has the following moral rights:

• The author has the right to claim authorship
• The right to object to any treatment of the work which would be ‘prejudicial to his or her honor and/or reputation.

Since the enactment of these Copyright provisions to protect the King of this thing called Intellectual Property (IP), there were also many changes made to the IP rules, criteria, and definitions too. Changes that transformed the entertainment industry, as a necessary function to accommodate its ever expanding platform of creative works steeped in mediums that ranged from traditional writings to motion pictures, videotapes, sound recordings, computer programs, databases, art works, and even sculpture works. All of which at the very speed of change itself would give passage to legal reforms by the U.S. Senate to criminalize acts that circumvent controlled access of copyrighted works as well as cyber-protect infringement of such works against unauthorized reproduction and/or use of it. The enactment of aforesaid reforms took place on the 28th day of October in 1998, when President Bill Clinton signed into law the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), a piece of legislation written to address: 

1. Online copyright infringement liability limitation.

2. Computer maintenance competition assurance.

3. Six (6) miscellaneous provisions related to copyright protections. 

Entertainment Platform 

Not only did this represent a pivotal moment in the field of Intellectual Property protection, it served as another era of legal reforms made to the copyright laws that protected high quality content.



By signing into law the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the government attempted to accommodate those burgeoning technological developments of the new digital millennium– innovations that set the entertainment platform ablaze requiring change management and legal reforms that disallowed access to copyrighted material through the circumvention of copyright protection systems.

  

On venturing forth to the first (1st) day of December in 2005, an article was released by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) pushing back against these legal reforms and pushing back hard. In particular, the EFF took issue with Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies or circumvention control measures used to control access of CD's, DVD’s and other digital media products sold on the market. Those circumvention control measures that resulted in the following drawbacks:

     A. Inability to playback copy-protected audio CD’s.

     B. Inability to view foreign region-coded DVD movies on U.S. players.

     C. Inability to fast-forward through un-skippable commercials.

     D. Inability to play and make full use of public domain motion pictures.

These were all attributes married to a system that the EFF considered “broken” because it was considered an anti-competitive practice that impinged upon consumers rights and prevented optimum pleasure of the digital media (www.eff.org). Consequently, they entered two proposals in appeal of DRM technologies by requesting exemptions on fail safe mechanisms. It was rejected. And as a result, they were forced to capitulate and accept the DRM technologies used to govern the vast range of digital media products sold on the market in this new digital millennium because it was mandated by law.

In fast forwarding to present times, an interesting four (4) man panel discussion entitled: Protecting Your Intellectual Property (IP) - The Policies and Technologies for Managing Risk attempted to shed some light on existing issues and possible remedies related to digital media governance, as well. With moderator David Bloom at the helm and facilitating the process, the floor was opened up with the following question to start:  

"Are there changes that need to be included in the next stages of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)?" 

To lead the way was George Borkowski, a partner at Mitchell Siberberg & Knupp, who mentioned the prospect of updating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act altogether. So that it would reflect the full spirit of “… social networking sites exploding everywhere". He also stressed the need for Congress to re-assess and clarify what "contributory infringement, direct infringement, and secondary infringement” meant today in these recent times of the social media revolution (49:30).

MySpace

Not too long thereafter, David Bloom would extend to the panel a hypothetical scenario involving MySpace. He quipped, “… you can host video’s on your site and maybe even get revenues out of them, but try to figure out if someone puts something up there that’s a copyright violation.” And the following question was posed as a result: 

"Who would be liable-- MySpace or the member?" 

Critical Thinking

The objective here was to encourage critical thought about risk matters concerning copyright infringement issues, culpability matters, and/or impending liability claims that Congress would likely have to contend with in such an event.

Another touch point covered by David Bloom involved a scenario, whereby a European businessman with a flexible view of American Copyright Laws in turn travels to the United States, and reverse engineers the “Fair Play” of DRM for Apple's iPod. He does this with hopes of selling it to various companies and having them run their own content on it. The following question was then posed as a result: 

"Would it dodge the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and how would Apple and Steve Jobs feel about it?"

Interestingly enough, the consensus regarding reverse engineered DRM on Apple’s iPod received very little backlash by members on the panel. And to the contrary, they felt it actually represented a better business model— both domestically and internationally. They also felt the benefits far outweighed the drawbacks, as it would allow other providers to safe-harbor their own content through use of Apple’s iPod. Despite the fact that, it would literally force Steve Jobs hand at making certain concessions in way of iTunes, iTunes music, and all other relevant content that they host.

Reverse Engineering of DRM

Panelist and Chief Engineer Reza Rassool weighed in to offer a more technical viewpoint about matters by elaborating on the interplay of Apple’s encryption process. 

To that end, he dispelled the notion of hacking or reverse engineering DRM, as a necessary means to importing 'foreign' content into the device. 

He explained in clear terms that there were 'simpler alternatives' that existed, which received a substantial amount of attention in Europe. He further stressed that the lack of correspondence received from Apple’s attorney(s) with respect to the legal ramifications of alternative encryption otherwise suggested that imports of foreign content from other data sources into the Apple device(s) quite possibly had some legal standing. Bringing to bear the following question: 

"What legal parameters surround re-circumvention of the device— or better yet, serve as a platform for uploading legal copyrighted content?" 

This constituted one of the most compelling questions of the discussion and it left the panelists somewhat bewildered and unable to provide a concrete answer. 

Encased in Bewilderment

In sum, there are arbitrary legalities associated with the emergence of digital technology and related innovations that abound. Ever-increasing innovation does not come without a price, but there is growth through legal reform(s). And while digital technology has paved the way to a highly evolved entertainment industry and global world market, it is copyright and intellectual property laws that serve to provide the legal adhesive that keeps it all together. Also, it represents monetization and protection mechanisms (among other things) granted to firms and used by content marketers around the globe to attract, engage, and sale audiences on their works showcasing high quality content. High quality content from which all salient elements of value sprout, whether tangible or intangible, and whether disseminated in the form of expressions, information, knowledge or stories that truly have the propensity to build rapport, generate revenue(s), and optimize service(s) in this technology-driven market that is Global Entertainment Business.