Darknet: Hollywood's War Against the Digital Generation [Hardcover]

J. D. Lasica (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2005

An indispensable primer for those who want to protect their digital rights from the dark forces of big media.
-Kara Swisher, author of aol.com
The first general interest book by a blogger edited collaboratively by his readers, Darknet reveals how Hollywood's fear of digital piracy is leading to escalating clashes between copyright holders and their customers, who love their TiVo digital video recorders, iPod music players, digital televisions, computers, and other cutting-edge devices. Drawing on unprecedented access to entertainment insiders, technology innovators, and digital provocateurs-including some who play on both sides of the war between digital pirates and entertainment conglomerates-the book shows how entertainment companies are threatening the fundamental freedoms of the digital age.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Rapid-fire advances in technology have transformed home entertainment. Not only can we store hours of television programming and music on hard drives, software has made it easy to create our own movies and songs, splicing and sampling professional-grade material into amateur productions. Entertainment conglomerates are understandably concerned, but in online journalist Lasica's reporting on the culture clash over digital distribution and remixing, corporations are simplistically portrayed as dinosaurs intent on stifling the little guy's creative freedom in order to protect their profit margins. The characterization is not entirely unmerited, but the deck feels unfairly stacked when "Big Entertainment" honchos are juxtaposed with a preacher who illegally copies and downloads movies so he can use short clips for his sermons. Similarly, Lasica infuses the allegedly inevitable triumph of "participatory culture" with a sense of entitlement and anti-corporate bias that he never fully addresses. Lasica's interviews are far-ranging, and he provides a cogent analysis of the broad problems with America's outdated legal framework for dealing with intellectual property rights and the need for the entertainment industry to adapt to new technologies. Too often, though, he falls back to an alarmist tone. With so many other works addressing this issue from both sides, it will be hard for Lasica's book to stand out from the pack. (May 13)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

When the music-recording industry took a hard-line legal stance against file sharers, it alienated its customer base and hurt its own sales. A similar battle is brewing in the movie industry, as faster Internet speeds and video compression are making it easier to download entire movies over the Net for free. Lasica, a top online journalist, takes us into the Internet movie underground, where an elite club of pirates known as "rippers" and "crackers" secretly obtain copies of movies and release them in cyberspace. At the other extreme are the Hollywood studios, which are treating ordinary users like thieves, placing such shackles on digital media that we can't legally make a backup copy of a DVD we own and soon restricting the copying and sharing of high-definition TV. Contrast this with the freedoms that computers give us to remix, copy, and paste video and to author DVDs, and you have a scenario where ordinary producers of creative art become felons. Lasica takes the middle view that while copyrights need to be protected, the continual erosion of fair-use rights needs to be addressed. David Siegfried
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (May 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471683345
• ISBN-13: 978-0471683346
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1.1 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,179,807 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This book really explains our times April 22, 2006

By michaelbuddy

Format:Hardcover

I originally heard about this book, while I was listening to a recorded Q and A session of South by Southwest (SXSW). I'm really glad I followed up and got it. Lasica did a fantastic job explaining our culture and how we interact with technology and new media. This book really wraps up how different groups such as corporations, senators, pirates and musicians affect it. Things are happening that you won't necessarily agree with on all sides.

Technology isn't as simple as making discoveries, because of the slow moving patent driven society we have become. The two sides covered brilliantly by Lasica are basically those who want or have ownership over information so they can control pricing, distribution, and those who want to use technology and media as creators, not just consumers. But it's the examples in the book that make it great...of the groups driven to darknets who don't want to be limited by laws that they feel are outdated, unjust, those who want information for everybody. These people from all walks of life are very interesting. Plus I loved all the references I learned about from reading it.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant July 12, 2005

By Sean W. Bohan

Format:Hardcover

First heard of this book at Gnomedex2005. While there I watched JD speak on a panel about tomorrow's media and talk about participatory culture, user generated content and how the smarts are with the audience, not with the people on the stage. He is so passionate about the subject, and was having such a great time talking about the personal media revolution that I picked up a copy of his book that night.

The only problem with this book, like a roller coaster when you are a kid, is that it ended too soon. 267 pages of fun, and interesting people and WTF? moments of corporate and legislative stupidity. JD isn't pro-piracy. JD isn't pro-RIAA/MPAA/MS. He lays out an excellent argument for why we need more moderation and common sense and why it is more important that we the people and our legislators have an understanding of historical record behind innovation and copyright and culture.

Lasica tells a cautionary tale about what might happen if we let the regulators (business, MSM, govt agencies) have their way without our say. They want control over their content, and more importantly, their sources of revenue.

He balances that with a strong warning to the big players: there are more pirates than there are lawyers, and they are fighting back against the limitations. Without being silly or sci fi, he takes the reader through a short tour of the darknets, giving the reader a peek into the people and motivation inside.

This book touches on copyright, free culture, software, file sharing, business, Hollywood, professionals and amateurs. Lasica's writing style is fast and clean and very direct. It is a fun and fast read with a great set of footnotes at the end the user can follow up on.

Google Lasica and ourmedia and see what else he is involved with regarding participatory media/culture.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Opened my eyes to whats going on.... June 11, 2005

By Harold Kionka

Format:Hardcover

As someone who spends a lot of time online and in the television world, Ill be the first to admit that I havent read as many books as I would have liked to in recent years. ( Not sure if Dean Koontz and John Grisham count)

But JD Lasicas "DARKNET" helps make up for all those nites in cyberspace wilderness. This is the best and most complete book Ive come across on the subject of the major transformations taking place in the media world. It wouldent suprise me if this book becomes the NWE BIBLE for the next generation of media...

The trick is that Lasica dosent do what most Big-J Journalists do: Latch onto a huge media or tech company and tell its story. Yes, Microsoft, Sony, Intel, HP, Play important roles here, But the author burrows into whats really driving todays changes in the digital world, and its happining at the grassroots, much of it OUT of the spotlight. This should be a textbook for students students studying media or next-generation online business models. Its all here in ONE comprehensive package.

Through example after example ( and LOTS of Beautiful no-nonsense writing) we see how Big Entertainment is spinning the public into believing this is a debate over piracy, when in reality the restrictions showing up in our digital gear are REALLY about preserving existing business models.

But the most Interesting chapters are not about law or corperate shenanigans. I was blown away by the author's insights fleshing out the future of television, movies, music, and gaming. Media will change more in the next five years than it has in the last 50 years, Lasica writes.

A few years from now, when millions of us will be walking around with mini computers in our pockets containing the storage capacity of today's Library of Congress, what kind of deal will we strike with the purveyors of information and entertainment? These are questions we should be debating today.

Today we get to decide what kind of future we want for tomorrows media-saturated society. There are some stark choices before us all, if only "The Media" began telling us WHAT they are.

But they WONT.. So get up to speed. READ "DARKNET"

5 STARS.......