Necessary Critiques

Winston Churchill once said, “Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary.” This is the attitude we adopted on Thursday as we pitched our web feature to our peers.

There was a positive response to our idea, but concerns were raised as to whether it was too amateurish for Screen Hub.

In response to this, we will strive to use the most authoritative sources possible in our articles, and design the site in a sleek, streamlined and professional manner.

For more information on our pitch, check out our handout!

Pulling Together a Feature

At this stage of our project we’ve found several important angles to explore regarding the way online streaming will affect the broadcast industry if legal streaming alternatives became available and popular in Australia. We have divided up the story angles between our group members.

I will be examining the effect of services such as Netflix on children’s content, utilising case studies from the United States. I will also be examining the way local content has been affected using Canada as a case study. Live content seems to be a way to keep television on top at the moment and hence is another important angle to explore.

Sarah B will be looking at the legal implications of online streaming in regard to intellectual copyright and copyright. She will be interviewing people at the forefront of their fields to help explain the complexity of these ideas.

In some ways online streaming has been shown to help ratings on television. Eryk will be examining the catch-up effect. He will also be looking at ways that people are already streaming content in Australia, whether legal or illegal.

Tyson will be looking at the way the presentation of websites allow the effective dissemination of information to audiences. He will also be considering the appropriate publication and style for our website.

Jessica will be examining the impact on advertising. Television and online content work according to very different business models and advertising on each medium have very different levels of effectiveness.

We will be researching these in more detail and outlining our findings in the blog.

Down the Legal Rabbit Hole

Lone Star College Online (2012) 'Law Book' <http://www.txprofdev.org/apps/onlineteaching/legal/>

I have a confession to make – I am addicted to Pretty Little Liars. It’s shameful, I know! Every Wednesday afternoon you will find me glued to my laptop screen waiting for another clue regarding the mysterious A’s identity.

There is a delay of fifteen episodes in Australia. Being the impatient Gen-Y-er that I am, I instinctively turn to the Internet to satisfy my PLL cravings.

Streaming television shows online is becoming so commonplace that very few people question the legality of their actions. In America, 23.9 million people use the service Netflix to access huge amounts on online content.

However, streaming shows yet to be released in Australia does constitute an offence: intellectual property theft.

Over the next few weeks I will investigate how international licensing agreements work to answer two big questions:

1. As a matter of law, why can’t I access Netflix, Hulu and other streaming services in Australia?
   
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2. If these services were to move to Australia, how could they legally enforce their rights to stream movies and television shows exclusively?