Will Hollywood Kill Engagism?

The IEEE's Spectrum Magazine had an interesting story on Hollywood and its reaction to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, passed in 1999. As Spectrum points out, "[t]he DMCA gave copyright holders new rights to control the way people use copyrighted material and new protection for technologies designed to restrict access or copying. The movie and record companies argued they needed these new restrictions to fight increased piracy threats in the digital era."

However, what has happened as a result is nothing less than the potential death of engagism. Content companies are urging Congress to mandate additional restrictions on the use of copyright materials -- uses that up until now have been perfectly legal. If Hollywood has its way, no longer will we be able to make a copy of a favorite movie to share with a friend. That will be an illegal activity, subject to enforcement by the "copyright police."

But this issue has more implications than just preventing us from sharing a movie with a friend. These types of restrictions may reduce our ability to engage in content by creating our own. Imagine a world in which our favorite snippets of the Colbert report could not be posted on You Tube. Perhaps more important, the drive to add these restrictions to devices represents a fundamental misunderstanding on the part of Hollywood of what the engagist consumer expects from content providers. Consumers want to engage with content. They want to use content to interact with the world around them by sharing downloads and inspiring others to enjoy their favorites. They want to make decisions about the direction of the story line in their favorite video games. They want to sample songs and use them to create their own fabulous works.

Will Hollywood kill engagism? Only if we let them. The question is, will Hollywood learn to understand and thrive in an increasingly engagist society?

Check out the Spectrum article on this issue at http://spectrum.ieee.org/jun06/3673