J.D. Lasica provides an interesting take on the impact of the digital generation on Hollywood and other content providers – “take” being the operative word. File-sharing has made it possible to get a copy of almost any song recorded – for free – without payment to the artist or to the publisher. The generation that gave birth to Napster has caught the record and movie industries by surprise. Occasionally, Lasica sides too strongly with the digital generation, but generally Darknet is an balanced discussion weighing the intellectual property rights of the corporation with the fair use/fair dealing rights of the consumer.
Personally, I think this book is less about a “war” (as the subtitle suggests) on a generation and more about an industry that is struggling to redefine themselves in the face of new technology. Fat profits and large corporations do not a nimble competitor make.
