Digital Technology Case Study

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Digital Technology and Law and Ethics

This essay will discuss the legal and ethical issues and debates associated with the use of creative digital technology in the production, manipulation, distribution, circulation, and consumption of creative media products.

YouTube has allowed people to express their creativity circumventing established media outlets. However unlike established media outlets most people are unaware of the laws protecting other peoples work and this has led to an increase in copyright infringement (Warren, 2012). Take the case of Ultra Records and YouTube star Michelle Phan. Phan has her own YouTube channel which has 6.7 million subscribers and has led to product endorsements and reported earnings of over $5 million …show more content…

In the eyes of the law however digital piracy is theft, which the entertainment industry claims is depriving them of billions of dollars of revenue annually. Over 30% of the world’s bandwidth is used for some form of digital piracy. However a 2013 study by the London School of Economics suggests that the entertainment industry has been exaggerating negative effect digital piracy has had. While statistics show a sharp decline in the sales generated from traditional revenue streams this decline has now been offset by the growth in the new revenue streams the rise of the internet has created and that the initial loss of profits was due to the industry’s resistance to the new digital environment. The study suggests that in some cases copyright infringement may actually help boast sales (BBC.co.uk, 2013) (CBC News, 2013). The creator of Breaking Bad Vince Gilligan said in a BBC interview that piracy helped the show to become popular due to brand awareness and he also stated that it led to a lot of people watching the series who otherwise would not have. However Gilligan is aware of the negative issues which piracy creates stating that piracy is ultimately a problem and will continue to be a problem going forward because we all need to get paid. The downside is a lot of folks who worked on the show would have made more money if those downloads had been legal. On November 14th 2014 the Motion Picture Association of America (MPA) was issued a court order blocking internet access to the website ISO Hunt (Izundu, 2013) (Webroot,.

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