Move Fast and Break Things

pwalker8 · 04-20-2017, 07:29 AM

Today's WSJ has a review of Jonathan Taplin's Move Fast and Break Things. The review is "Whose Song Is It, Anyway?" According to the review, the book looks at how the platform companies such as Facebook, Amazon and Google have cashed in on content provided by others, while little of that money goes back to the content providers. While the book focuses on music (the author is a well known music producer), it also delves into ebooks and video. According to the review, the book advocates a change in the safe harbor clause of the DMCA and other changes to things such as fair use.

Based on the review, I probably won't buy the book. However, the main thing that I took away from the review is that right now, the digital media battle is divided into three main groups - content providers, platform providers and consumers - each with very different priorities. Both content providers and platform companies have very deep pockets and know how to play the game to the laws changed in their favor. I suspect that the consumer will once again be on the outside looking in.

fjtorres · 04-20-2017, 08:00 AM

Three camps, yes.
But the three camps are creators, consumers, and middlemen.

All the conflict and angst is about entrenched middlemen fighting with new middlemen.

Because: M-O-N-E-Y.

No good guys or bad guys in the middleman space. Just giant corps jockeying for position.

pwalker8 · 04-20-2017, 10:01 AM

I don't think it's just fighting between middlemen, it's also fighting to maintain their relative bargaining position over the creators and consumers. Thus the fights that Apple had with the music companies a number of years ago and the fights that Amazon has had with the publishing companies. For the most part, you have large platform companies such as Apple, Amazon, Netflix and youTube (Google) that have little to no competition. From that stand point, there is no middle men to fight with.

04-20-2017, 07:29 AM	#1
pwalker8 Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,195 Karma: 70314280 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Atlanta, GA Device: iPad Pro, iPad mini, Kobo Aura, Amazon paperwhite, Sony PRS-T2	Move Fast and Break Things Today's WSJ has a review of Jonathan Taplin's Move Fast and Break Things. The review is "Whose Song Is It, Anyway?" According to the review, the book looks at how the platform companies such as Facebook, Amazon and Google have cashed in on content provided by others, while little of that money goes back to the content providers. While the book focuses on music (the author is a well known music producer), it also delves into ebooks and video. According to the review, the book advocates a change in the safe harbor clause of the DMCA and other changes to things such as fair use. Based on the review, I probably won't buy the book. However, the main thing that I took away from the review is that right now, the digital media battle is divided into three main groups - content providers, platform providers and consumers - each with very different priorities. Both content providers and platform companies have very deep pockets and know how to play the game to the laws changed in their favor. I suspect that the consumer will once again be on the outside looking in.

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04-20-2017, 08:00 AM	#2
fjtorres Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,732 Karma: 128354696 Join Date: May 2009 Location: 26 kly from Sgr A* Device: T100TA,PW2,PRS-T1,KT,FireHD 8.9,K2, PB360,BeBook One,Axim51v,TC1000	Three camps, yes. But the three camps are creators, consumers, and middlemen. All the conflict and angst is about entrenched middlemen fighting with new middlemen. Because: M-O-N-E-Y. No good guys or bad guys in the middleman space. Just giant corps jockeying for position.

04-20-2017, 10:01 AM	#3
pwalker8 Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,195 Karma: 70314280 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Atlanta, GA Device: iPad Pro, iPad mini, Kobo Aura, Amazon paperwhite, Sony PRS-T2	I don't think it's just fighting between middlemen, it's also fighting to maintain their relative bargaining position over the creators and consumers. Thus the fights that Apple had with the music companies a number of years ago and the fights that Amazon has had with the publishing companies. For the most part, you have large platform companies such as Apple, Amazon, Netflix and youTube (Google) that have little to no competition. From that stand point, there is no middle men to fight with.

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