Digital Culture Industry: A History of Digital Distribution

242 Pages·2013·1.013 MB·English

by  James Allen-Robertson (auth.)

The Palgrave Macmillan
Digital Culture Industry
A History of Digital Distribution
James Allen-Robertson
Digital Culture Industry
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Digital Culture Industry
A History of Digital Distribution
James Allen-Robertson
JamesAllen-Robertson©2013
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-03346-8
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Firstpublished2013by
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PalgraveMacmillanistheglobalacademicimprintoftheabovecompanies
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ISBN 978-1-349-44150-1 ISBN 978-1-137-03347-5 (eBook)
DOI10.1057/9781137033475
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13
Contents
ListofFigures vii
Acknowledgements viii
GlossaryofTerms ix
1 Introduction 1
Thetrialofthepiratekings 1
Thisbook 3
Afarfromsimplenarrative 5
2 WritingaDigitalHistorywithDigitalDocuments 11
Theeventbiography 11
Trawlingthearchiveofarchives 16
Digitaldocumentsandtheirdiscontents 23
3 MP3.comandNapster:TheEntrepreneursofRisk 39
TheMP3 39
MP3.com:anewtypeofmusic 41
Napster:buildinganetwork 44
MP3.com:sellingdigital 50
Napster:excitingdisruption 54
MP3.com:dismantlinginnovation 59
Myth 62
4 GNUtella:DecentralisingtheMasses 64
Nullsoft 64
GNUtella 71
Politicallydecentralised 74
5 FastTrack:TheBusinessofPiracy 76
ZennströmandFriis 76
Sharmantakesover 82
Grokster(KazaaandStreamcast)vMGM 85
Incorporatingthecompetition 89
Thebusinessofpiracy 91
v
vi Contents
6 BitTorrent:RevolutionintheNetwork 94
Perfect 94
ThelegitimateBitTorrent 102
ThePirateBay 109
Apiraticalideology 128
7 HackingtheMarket 132
Keepingitinthefamily 132
Ahacker’smarket 138
8 NewMediaGatekeepers 152
Bringinthetechnologists! 152
Codesofcontrol 156
Competingwithfree 168
Thenewmediagatekeepers 184
9 AHistoryofDigitalDistribution 187
Adigitalcultureindustry 187
Change 194
Notes 201
Bibliography 204
Index 225
Figures
3.1 Simpleclientservernetworkarchitecture 46
3.2 Napsternetworkarchitecture 48
4.1 GNUtellanetworkarchitecture 69
5.1 FastTracknetworkarchitecture 79
6.1 BitTorrentnetworkarchitecture 100
vii
Acknowledgements
Asthehackerethicwouldhaveusbelieve,noworkcanbeattributed
toasingleindividual.Itiscertainlytrueinthiscase;thoughIamthe
only named author, this book was a community effort. I would like
tothankKate,mypatientandsupportivewife,whosehandiworkcan
beseeninthefiguresthroughout.IwouldliketothankNeilRenton
for putting me on this path, as well as Professor Roger Burrows, Dr
DavidBeer,BrianLoaderandDrMartinDodgefortheirguidanceand
comments throughout. I thank Professor Samuelson at Berkley Law
foransweringmyquestionsontheesotericUScopyrightlaw.Finally,
Ithanktheinfinitepopulationofbloggers,tweeters,commentersand
archiversthatproducedandcuratedthehugearchiveofdocuments
thatmadethisworkpossible.
This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research
Council(grantnumberES/F03587X/1).
viii
Glossary of Terms
AHRA AudioHomeRecordingActof1992
AntiPiratbyrån Swedishanti-piracyorganisation
ARG AlternateRealityGame
ASCAP AmericanSocietyofComposers,Authorsand
Publishers
BBS BulletinBoardSystem
BDE BrilliantDigitalEntertainment
BEN BitTorrentEntertainmentNetwork
BMG BertelsmannMusicGroup
Bootstrap Theself-sufficientprocessofconnectinganew
nodetoanexistingnetwork
MPEG MotionPictureExpertGroup–aspecialistgroup
withintheInternationalStandardsOrganisation
RIAA RecordingIndustryAssociationofAmerica
MPAA MotionPictureAssociationofAmerica
DAB DigitalAudioBroadcasting–adigitalradio
broadcastingstandard,primarilyusedinEurope
DAT DigitalAudioTape–arecordablemediumsimilar
totapethatutilisedbinarysignal
DHT DistributedHashTable–adecentralisedindexing
service,usefulforco-ordinatingpeer-to-peer
networks(seealsoPEX)
DMCA DigitalMillenniumCopyrightActof1998
DRM DigitalRightsManagement
EMI ElectricandMusicalIndustriesLtd
EULA EndUserLicenceAgreement–aformofprivate
contracttypicallyusedinsoftwarebetweenthe
rightsholderandenduser
F/OSS Free(and/or)OpenSourceSoftware
IP IntellectualProperty
ISO InternationalStandardsOrganisation
JXTA Anopen-sourcepeer-to-peerprotocolproduced
byGeneKan
P2P Peer-to-Peer
ix