Since the internet became a popular meeting ground for fans of movies, music, and gaming, there has been an increase in copyright infringement cases. Most recently, the music labels have begun to take legal action against those who download and share music without some form of payment. Jenkins addresses actions like this that corporations in the film industry have taken. He mentions how Lucasfilm has created a website (www.lucasfilm.com/divisions/online/) that allows Lucasfilm to monitor the use of the characters of the Star Wars films in other fan made films. This website was created as a meeting place for fans to be creative with their interaction with the films; however, some of the fans believed that the site was not only for fan creativity, but for the company to control what the fans used in their sites or films. This control occurs most often with legal threats, but company controlled free fan websites are also a popular control of media use as this one is.
In today's media based culture, companies are needing to find ways to work with the fans of their product without breaking the boundaries that copyright laws create. Jenkins writes that Anthropologist Grant McCracken has stated that corporations will either have to allow further construction and representation of their creations or they will lose economically. "The new consumer will help create value or they will refuse it..."(158) Legal threats will not stop every fan, and all attempts to control the fan participation will eventually equal to no fan participation.
Jenkins is ultimately stating that allowing the consumers to participate in the fan culture with fewer restrictions on how they do it without infringing on copyright laws would be in the companies' best economical interests.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment