The University of Chicago Law School Faculty Blog: The Content Wars

Chicago Law faculty member Randy Picker writes about how the “content battle” over freely-found-and-downloaded vs paid vs ad-supported media will alter our media landscape. It’s an incredible point which needs more examination and discussion, but I would argue that the view expressed here must be checked by other emerging trends.

If we really live in a world in which only a single copy can be sold and then it will be free everywhere, we will need to abandon sales of content.

This is not necessarily true. While it may be technically possible to get content for free, many still choose to pay for content. Reasons vary from “supporting the artist” to the ease, convenience, and quality of paid content. Additionally, social norms are in many cases holding this outcome in check. For example, many downloaders of Japanese manga and anime adhere to a principle of supporting the paid content once it becomes licensed in their own country. In some cases, this includes removing links to the original copies (thus making the paid copies more convenient to obtain).

The sold copy has represented a simple way of organizing consumers to pay for content. When consumers pay for content, they are the patrons served by content producers. If consumers donâ€™t pay for content, the advertisers are the patrons and it is their interests that will be served.

There is an additional way in which content is being changed through Internet culture which warrants mention: user manipulation. In a digital world where songs are mashed together or put to video, or foreign media are translated at an incredible rate, the control over a creator’s message is being drastically reduced. However, while control may be reduced it does not necessarily follow that income, status, or the purity of the original message will also be degraded. From a media theory standpoint, this moves us more explicitly away from the “bullet” model (where a communicator sends a message which has an effect on the listener) towards a feedback model. Under this understanding, a dialog takes place between creators and the audience, who are acknowledged and more engaged in the creation of culture.
The tension between the creation of content and the use (or reuse) of content need not be seen as a war. Hopefully it is an element of a more robust, interactive, and yet still profitable media system.