The cloud, online piracy and global copyright governance

Abstract

Piracy is taking on an entirely new character in the age of media in the cloud. Global technology and business models are evolving rapidly, while regulators and lawmakers are catching up in attempts to work out a new set of rules of engagement. In this article, I explore the divergent developments between a retrograde global copyright governance regime and cloud-based media distribution that focuses on connectivity and access. I also examine attempts at business model innovation that seek to effectively embrace and control the continually evolving user–content–platform interaction in the cloud. This article will contribute to our understanding of this rapidly changing ecosystem and the dynamics between technology, law and market.

Saviours or Burdens? The Effects of Streaming Services on the Music Industry

“…Through streaming services, artists are still technically being paid as rights holdersan improvement from piracy culture -but those pay-outs are still vastly reduced compared to physical sales. Wang (2017) explains that "consuming copyrighted material online is no longer an anomaly, it is a norm aligned with users' desire for immediate access to new content" (p. 271).…”

Copyright Governance for Online Short Videos: Perspective of Transaction Cost Economics

“…China has always been reluctant to develop a copyright regime, owing to the historically ingrained values of collectivity and Confucianism in Chinese culture, which have discouraged legal barriers between forms of artistic output ( Cheng, 2019 ). As a result, widespread piracy has become a contentious aspect of Chinese culture, both in volume and influence, endangering political and economic stability locally and globally ( Wang, 2017 ).…”

“…In recent years, copyright governance of short videos has become a hot issue of concern in the academic community ( Wang, 2017 ). Most studies attribute the proliferation of infringing short videos to the copyright law seriously lagging behind the current reality of the development of network technology ( Lintaman, 2020 ) and then discuss the governance of short video copyright from the legal science perspective ( Tan, 2018 ).…”

Beyond stealing: The determinants/motivations of Czech audiences to pay for audiovisual content

“…However, the current situation has also brought, along with new content sources and reception devices, new topics and problems derived from the simple fact that the convergent post-televisual audiences watch television content to some degree distinctly. And even though watching audiovisual content online is no longer an aberration (Wang, 2017) and 43% of people globally watch on-demand video at least once a day (Nielsen Media Research, 2018), post-televisual audiences still represent an emerging topic of study.…”

“…As far as ethical considerations are concerned, for many audience members, acquiring films and TV series (and other content) from non-authorised online sources has become a mundane, acceptable and mostly non-problematic practice which does not call for any deeper ethical reconsideration (Wang, 2017). Audience members tend to perceive media piracy as incomparable with physical theft (Lowry et al, 2017), as a victimless crime (Hashim et al, 2018) or as an acceptable normality (‘everybody is doing it, why wouldn’t I?’) (Wilhelm, 2020).…”