The Internet at 20: Storytelling Cut
in Tiny Pieces, Competition, and
Labor Markets
Henry H. Perritt, Jr.
Clips
• YTAMF movie trailer:
http://vimeo.com/29749199
• Giving Ground depositiion clip:
http://vimeo.com/38760451
Technology’s impact
Music
Video entertainment
Capital costs
$250,000$5,000 or much $20 million$50,000
less
Competition
Hundreds tens of
thousands
Dozens thousands
Demand
Home and
careverywhere all the
time
Home and
theatereverywhere all
the time
Crap to jewel ratio
Highenormous
Highenormous
Intermediaries
LabelsiTunes, Pandora,
and Spotify
StudiosYouTube, Hulu,
Amazon, Netflix
The piracy incentive
Music and video entertainment
Music
Video
entertainment
Capital costs
Low and falling
High and falling
Marginal costs
Near zero
Near zero
Competition
Rapidly increasing
Rapidly increasing
Importance of
copyright
Zero
Higher because of
substantial fixed
costs
Need for $
incentives
Zero for creators;
Significant for
intermediaries
Must cover much
higher costs for
creators
Need for licensing
other copyrighted
material
Low
Moderate—”Happy
Birthday” for
birthday party
Elements of capital cost
Music
Video entertainment
• Physical
• Mics
• Computer
• $800
software
• Labor
• Singer
• Instrument
alists
• Recording
engineer
• Physical
• Cameras
• Recording
equipment
• Lights
• $800 software
• Labor
• Actors
• Cinematographer
• Sound engineer
• Editor
• Location fees
• Licenses
YouTubegood stories
Labor markets and the antitrust laws
Labor exemption
Labor exemption
“Competitive entertainment: Implications of the NFL lockout litigation for
sports, theatre, and video entertainment”
Synergies
• YTAMFmovieAirline MilesGiving GroundArian:
principles of good stories
• Music: attentiveness to word choice
• Being a producer:
– business models,
– what’s important economically,
– talent willing to work for peanuts or for free
• Being a lawyer, law professor, and writing about this stuff:
–
–
–
–
contracts;
strategies for TAH;
reservation of IP rights;
exposing nonsense
The future
•
•
•
•
Let the Internet be the Internet
Subvert the copyright barons
Be bold
Accept that the law should lag
Citations & urls
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
New Business Models for Music, 18 VILLANOVA SPORTS & ENT. L. J. 63 (2010)
Technologies of Storytelling: New Models for Movies, 10 VIRGINIA SPORTS & ENT. L. J.
106 (2010)
Cut in Tiny Pieces: Ensuring that Fragmented Ownership Does Not Chill Creativity,
14 VANDERBILT J. ENT. & TECH.L.1 (2011)
The Internet at 20: Evolution of a Constitution for Cyberspace, ___ William & Mary
Bill of Rights J. ___ (2012) (forthcoming).
www.givinggroundplay.com
www.airlinemilesplay.com
www.youtookawaymyflagfilm.com
Arian: a novel: http://www.amazon.com/Arian-HankPerritt/dp/1466477717/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334101064&sr=8-1
– Or search for “Hank Perritt” in amazon.com