Murdoch is right. By taking stories of Google, his customers will have to come to his site to read the news there. It has worked for Schibsted in Norway, but then again, they have a virtual monopoly on country wide news (at least a very high share). If more newspapers follow Murdoch, it will work for them to, but it is unlikely that it will work if only News Corp. Newspapers follow this practice. This may be viewed as a prisoner’s dilemma game. If no newspapers choose to have their news on Google, then the entire newspaper sector will benefit, because consumers will be forced to go directly to the sites they wish to read news from, and thus watch the ads, or pay for the content. However, in such a scenario each individual newspaper will benefit relative to the others should they choose to index their sites, because they might up their share of readers. Therefore it is likely that Murdoch will be alone outside of Google Search and Google News, and loose readers due to it.
If you liked this post or any other post feel free to click the “follow” button to the right to stay tuned to new posts when they appear. You can also follow me on Twitter as @vetleen.
Showing posts with label copyright. Show all posts
Showing posts with label copyright. Show all posts
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Monday, 19 October 2009
Change happens when change is due
In April 3, 1984 the Norwegian police raid a man’s home in Gjøvik, near Oslo. The reason is that the man has admitted openly to watching foreign television channels through his satellite dish. In the years that followed a number of laws were lifted due to the realization that it was impossible to isolate Norway from the rest of the world.
In 2001 a program called Napster changed the way we consume music, In a major lawsuit effort, the record companies was able to take down Napster, but the damage had already been done. Hundreds of sharing applications was introduced, technologies that was supposed to make it difficult to track and get the file sharers. In our time the main target of the copyright industry has been the thepiratebay.org, and maybe they have succeeded, but it seems each time they cut of the head of this “monster” that is copyright infringement, two new grow out.
The Napster incident was nevertheless not the first move from the copyright industry to take down technology. In 1976, following Sony’s invention of the Betamax (later overtaken by VCR), there was an upheaval in Disney and Universal Studios that led to a lawsuit to shut down the technology. The argument was that this new technology could be used to copy movies and store them for later use, and this would surely be the end of the movie industry. Bear in mind that back then the major income sources of these companies was from theatres and from television, you couldn’t simply buy the movies. The US Supreme Court found that the technology could not be banned, because it could also have legal uses, and that copying a film to watch it later was “fair use”. Today this seems obvious, but the Supreme Court judges disagreed on the matter, and it was only by one vote that the lawsuit was rejected (the majority changed from 6-3 for the act to 5-4 against in the last minute). Today the largest single source of income from the movie industry is sales of video for home use (through DVD/Blue-ray), something that the movie industry couldn’t possibly have predicted.
In the cases listed above, new technology is viewed by the existing power structure as a source of social change, something that can make the old actors irrelevant. In all of the cases progress occurs without the support of those in power, but by the power of the people. Technological change is a wave moving across society, it has force, and powerful change cannot be stopped. Technological change will happen when the time is right. Instead of fighting change, business should embrace it, and try to think how they can be their best in the new environment. How do change in technology, in society, in consumers represent opportunities for your company?
In 2001 a program called Napster changed the way we consume music, In a major lawsuit effort, the record companies was able to take down Napster, but the damage had already been done. Hundreds of sharing applications was introduced, technologies that was supposed to make it difficult to track and get the file sharers. In our time the main target of the copyright industry has been the thepiratebay.org, and maybe they have succeeded, but it seems each time they cut of the head of this “monster” that is copyright infringement, two new grow out.
The Napster incident was nevertheless not the first move from the copyright industry to take down technology. In 1976, following Sony’s invention of the Betamax (later overtaken by VCR), there was an upheaval in Disney and Universal Studios that led to a lawsuit to shut down the technology. The argument was that this new technology could be used to copy movies and store them for later use, and this would surely be the end of the movie industry. Bear in mind that back then the major income sources of these companies was from theatres and from television, you couldn’t simply buy the movies. The US Supreme Court found that the technology could not be banned, because it could also have legal uses, and that copying a film to watch it later was “fair use”. Today this seems obvious, but the Supreme Court judges disagreed on the matter, and it was only by one vote that the lawsuit was rejected (the majority changed from 6-3 for the act to 5-4 against in the last minute). Today the largest single source of income from the movie industry is sales of video for home use (through DVD/Blue-ray), something that the movie industry couldn’t possibly have predicted.
In the cases listed above, new technology is viewed by the existing power structure as a source of social change, something that can make the old actors irrelevant. In all of the cases progress occurs without the support of those in power, but by the power of the people. Technological change is a wave moving across society, it has force, and powerful change cannot be stopped. Technological change will happen when the time is right. Instead of fighting change, business should embrace it, and try to think how they can be their best in the new environment. How do change in technology, in society, in consumers represent opportunities for your company?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)