Issue 4, Q3 2008
Millions of people around the world tune to MySpace, YouTube, Facebook or Bebo every day. Most are passive viewers who watch videos, listen to new tracks or communicate with friends, but others post their own content, mixing images they may (or may not) have shot themselves with music that is usually lifted from copyright recordings. Others, meanwhile, simply cut and paste from TV shows, films or DVDs, and post it up.
Regardless of what one may think of the creative value of user-generated-content, it is obvious that services offering users the possibility to post their own content are one of the most important developments of the digital era. The question for rights owners is how can they monetise this social behaviour?
Impact asked this simple question to publishers, authors’ societies, online services and legal experts, and as the cover story illustrates, the responses are far from simple. But the consensus is that UGC has the potential to be a real jackpot for all rights owners in the years to come. And that is probably the best news for the industry in a long time.
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Impact issue 4 Q3-08.pdf
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