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Katie Shepherd

Christopher Moore

BCM101

15 June 2009

Word Count: 1192

Assessment Task 8: Reflective Essay

Report on music consumption in 21st Century society and discuss peer-to-peer file sharing and

its relationship to Terry Flew’s concept of disintermediation.

With the introduction of the internet as a high speed, convenient way to access

information, peer-to-peer file sharing has become a popular way to access content quickly.

The use of the internet as a social marketplace allows for a “socio-economic shift to occur” in

which the internet “in the 21st Century is a strong holder in the economic market” and stands

alone as a place to access content and allows for continual electronic commerce to take place

(Flew 2008, pp95). As Benkler (2006) describes, the basis for this shift can be seen in the

relationship between the individual and the firm and is due to the fact that “consumers are

changing into users and are more active and productive than the consumers of the industrial

economy” (pp126). The concept of users as consumers is at the heart of the e-commerce

marketplace, as Borenstein and Saloner state “e-commerce and the Internet will bring greater

direct changes in the processes of production” (pp6). It is when these users purchase products

directly from the manufacturers and cut out the traditional distribution stages that allows for

the process to be “pure electronic commerce” (Flew 2008, pp199). This process is called

disintermediation and is a “consequence of the rise of the internet and new media” (Flew

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2008, pp201). As Flew (2008) states “it is where a more direct relationship emerges between

the creators or producers of content and their consumers” (pp201).

Figure 1. Turban et al., 2000, Disintermediation and reintermediation, diagram (pp64)

This relationship between manufacturers and consumers now occurs over the internet and

allows for the direct purchase of content from the manufacturer itself. With this in mind it can

be seen that disintermediation could have a negative impact on the industrial economy and

could see many of these consumers become users and no longer purchase products from the

industrial marketplace. As Jason and Mansell (1998) note, in regards to the European music

industry, “disintermediation in the extreme could result in the collapse of the recording

business today…the key players need to re-position themselves in order to acquire a

competitive edge in the new Internet economy” (pp2).

Benkler (2006) argues that “new social patterns of information production could still

be industrialised by the market through both state intervention and the present control of a

communications infrastructure” (pp22-28). With this in mind the industrial market needs to

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adjust to this new electronic marketplace and allow for this socio-economic shift to occur. The

industrial market needs to embrace e-commerce and become a part of it to keep both markets

following succinctly.

Figure 2. Apple iTunes, 2009, Apple Releases iTunes 7.3.2, JPEG

With the popularity of peer-to-peer file sharing and music downloads, the music industry has

accepted the socio-economic shift of the 21st Century and become a popular player in the

electronic marketplace. With the popularity of online sites or new media forms such as iTunes

and Bigbond music, many consumers are able to access music and movie files quickly, legally

and in the comfort of their own home.

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Figure 3. Flynn, C 2008, Apple upgrades iPod Nano with colours and a bigger screen, JPEG.

Apple iTunes is a major multi-million dollar company that has facilitated a place

where an almost endless list of artists, albums and songs are available for download at

affordable prices. As Lister (2009) states “Apple had the good sense to continue to allow

users to rip music from CD to the PC and then to the music device itself” (pp197). It is when

this ripped file format can then be loaded onto a computer and then onto a peer-to-peer file

sharing program and accessed over the internet that it breaches the Digital Millennium

Copyright Act of 1998.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) highlights were the market made its first

major move to try and industrialise contemporary social patterns of consumer content and

consumption, as Lister (2009) states “the Digital Millennium Copyright Act was a reflection

of an important new direction in the distribution of cultural commodities” (pp194). Digital

Millennium Copyright Act is divided into 5 titles and serves to protect the ability to sell

cultural products as packaged goods and protects against digital piracy of these packaged and

copyrighted works. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act “new section 512 to the Copyright

Act 3, created four new limitations on liability for copyright infringement by online service

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providers” (s.512). These limitations include “transitory communications, system caching,

storage of information on systems or networks at direction of users and information location

tools” or where the information is being accessed (s.512). These limitations have caused for

many peer-to-peer file sharing systems such as Napster, Kazaa and the site Pirate Bay to be

caught breaching these limitations.

Figure 4. Brady, JA 2008, Pirate Bay Logo, JPEG, accessed 28/05/09,

http://www.slashgear.com/the-pirate-bay-going-on-the-offensive-to-countersue-ifpi-

international-version-of-riaa-1611208/

In the case of the peer-to-peer file sharing site Pirate Bay, “the headquarters in

Stockholm were raided by the Swedish police in 2006 causing the site to go offline for three

days” (Miegel and Olsson 2008, pp203). The raid on this site, which prides itself on being

“the world’s largest bittorent-tracker having reached 25 million peers in November 2008”, has

been involved in a number of lawsuits (Miegel and Olsson 2008, pp203). “On April 17, 2009

“four defendants were accused of ‘assisting in making copyright content available’” (enigmax

2009). Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm and Carl Lundstrom were found guilty

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and received a “year in jail and fines totaling $US 3,620,000” (enigmax 2009). Even though

the police were able to raid the sites headquarters in Stockholm it seemingly unaffected the

site and highlights the basic problem of peer-to-peer file sharing systems and how hard it is to

stop these sites or shut down these systems without some form of world police. This site has

headquarters around the world so therefore to shut down the site completely, police all over

the world would have to find and shut down all the headquarters simultaneously. As Angela

Adrian states “without geographical filtering, such sites are likely to reach nations that see the

balance between technological freedom and copyright protection differently” (pp393) and so

would therefore have different laws and governments to contend with to shut down sites like

Pirate Bay for good.

Even with lawsuits such as this peer-to-peer file sharing is still a popular way of

downloading files for free by using programs such as Limewire, Kazaa, uTorrent, or Azures.

These programs allow for the access of files on a peer-to-peer basis. It allows users to access

other users’ personal collections and share them over the internet often progressively and in

regards to movies files with no guarantee on the quality, safety or accessibility of the content.

These programs use sites such as Pirate Bay, Bittorrent and isohunt to find torrent files and

download them using these programs. This can be a fast way to access content over the

internet and can allow for many of its users to receive content before it airs on television or is

screened in the cinemas.

In conclusions in today’s society peer-to-peer file sharing whether legal or illegal is a

quick and convenient way to access content and as Berland (1998) states, in regards to music

consumption and peer-to-peer file sharing, “that the constant reshaping of internet

technologies has affected our music habits” (pp133) and has helped to reshape the music

industry to make the socio-economic shift into the 21st Century electronic marketplace.

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Works Cited List

Adrian, A 2006 “The Pirate Bay deep-sixed”, Computer Law & Security Report, vol 22,

no.5, pp392-401.

Apple iTunes, 2009, Apple Releases iTunes 7.3.2, JPEG, accessed 28/05/09 http://gadgets-

tech.blogspot.com/2007/08/apple-releases-itunes-732.html

Benkler, Y 2006 The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets

and Freedom, Yale University Press, New Haven CN.

Berland, J 1998 “Locating listening: Technological space, popular music and Canadian

mediations”, in The Place of Music, A, Leyshon, D, Matless and G, Revill (eds),

New York, pp129-150.

Borenstein, S and Saloner, G 2001 “Economics and Electronic Commerce”, The Journal

of Economic Perspectives, vol 15, no 1, pp3-12, accessed 18/05/09, JSTOR

database.

Brady, JA 2008, Pirate Bay Logo, JPEG, accessed 28/05/09, http://www.slashgear.com/the-

pirate-bay-going-on-the-offensive-to-countersue-ifpi-international-version-of-riaa-

1611208/

Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998

Enigmax, 2009 The Pirate Bay Trial: The Official Verdict – Guilty,

http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-trial-the-verdict-090417/.

Flew, T 2008 New Media: an introduction, 3rd edition, Oxford University Press,

Melbourne, Victoria.

Flynn, C 2008, Apple upgrades iPod Nano with colours and a bigger screen, JPEG, accessed

28/05/09 http://www.slipperybrick.com/category/ipod-nano/

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Jason, E and Mansell, R 1998 ‘A case of electronic commerce: The online music

industry – content, regulation and barriers to development’, Working Paper

ACTS/FAIR No 4, Brighton.

Lister, M, Dovey, J, Giddings, S, Grant, I and Kelly, K 2009 “Music as New Media”, in

New Media: a Critical Introduction, 2nd edn, Routledge, Milton Park, Abingdon,

Oxon, pp 191-197.

Miegel, F and Olsson, T 2008, ‘Democracy, Journalism and Technology: New

Developments in an enlarged Europe’, PhD thesis, School of European Media

and Communication, Tartu University.

Turban E, Lee, J, Kung, D and Chung, M 2000, Electronic Commerce: a managerial

Perspective, Prentice-Hall, New Jersey.