You would have seen the protests against SOPA yesterday of you tried to use Wikipedia or a host of other websites. It’s a an interesting and difficult proposal where the openness of the Internet is clashing with traditional industry who have struggled to understand any modern technology. Hollywood were scared of VHS then DVDs but now they make most of their money from them. It’s true the Internet is different as they can’t sell ‘Internets’ and it aids illegal sharing but sites such as YouTube and the ability for the world to comment and contribute are the the best marketing and publicity tools ever invented. Record sales at their highest ever and it’s making a lot of people very rich. As the TED talk below points out people love to create too, not just consume. I think it’s very important we are all allowed to do this, but we must also respect those creating music hits and blockbuster films. However, saying that, perhaps the film and music industries need a bit of a reality check, does an actor really deserve to be paid millions for a film (I bet all the rest of the combined team who put the film together get less), or the winner of X Factor a million pound record deal. They’re hardly saving lives and changing the world in the way the Internet is – and much of the Internet is build with and using free software that provide free services – so no wonder there is a culture clash.

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