(USA, 107 min.)
Dir. Alex Winter
Programme: Rule
Breakers and Innovators (International Premiere)
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| Shawn Fanning. (Photo credit: Anghel Decca) |
Oh, Napster. I thought the file sharing program was one of
the greatest inventions of all time back when it came out in the late 1990s. I
had dial-up internet (the red dot) and could download any song I wanted in less
than an hour. Then came DC++ and I could have any movie playing on my screen in
less time, which proved a godsend when I was living in Kingston and unable to
see many Oscar contenders at local theatres. Films like Down to the Bone weren’t even available in Canadian theatres, so it
was exciting to have a rare leg up on the Oscar race. After a few months of
downloading went by, plus six seasons of The
Sopranos and a few dozen movies, Paramount sent me a ‘cease and desist’
email in reference to a bootleg copy of Last
Holiday that was on my computer. Downloading then seemed far lesser cooler
than it was before the first time I nabbed a free track from Napster.
Napster, for all its pros and cons, changed the way we consume media. Alex Winter’s all-encompassing doc Downloaded charts the epic rise and fall of the computerland giant from its conception by teenage friends Shawn Fanning and Shawn Parker to its inevitable collapse at the hands of the music industry. Napster encapsulates the explosion of the digital revolution, and Downloaded captures the practical and ideological shifts that the industry struggles to reconcile as more and more of our daily habits move online and become peer-to-peer.
Downloaded,
structured in chapter format, begins with a quick overview of the creation of
its programme from its founder, Shawn Fanning. Fanning explains how a flash of
genius inspired him to drop out of university and pursue a big idea. He
assembled a code for the file-sharing programme with help from an online
community. It was through this network of hackers that he met Shawn Parker (who
doesn’t come across like the douchebag Justin Timberlake entertainingly portrayed him to be in
The Social Network) and the pair led
Napster through a relaxed, youthful start-up.
The subsequent chapters of Downloaded introduce a roster of talking heads who discuss how
Napster embodied a greater shift in culture’s relationship to technology.
Napster seemed to realize the democratic philosophy of the Internet, as it
allowed for endless connectivity and peer-to-peer relationships. People could
connect faster than ever before by trading songs and swapping music, much like
one does with albums, books, and films between friends. The programme
anticipated much of the social media boom that was to come.
On the other hand, the murky legality of Napster’s file-sharing
made it difficult for many parties in the music industry to embrace the new
technology. As Fanning and Parker explain the structure of Napster, it seems
clear the project was conceived in a legal grey area that was covered somewhat
by laws like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, although the law simply
could not keep up with technology. It’s nothing different from making a copy of
a CD onto a blank cassette for a friend (a precedent that surprisingly fails to
receive mention in the film), but Napster was arguably the first incident of
large-scale digital copying that could be tracked and quantified.
File-sharing programs such as Napster and its progenies enable(d)
free circulation of copyright material regardless of how one looks at the
network and user behaviour. The differences between the talking heads, rather,
are philosophical ones. Some parties—including Napster programmers,
businessmen, and musicians—see this endless hub of free circulation as a
landmark opportunity to let art and commerce flow freely. Music could reach a
wider audience than ever before and users could discover artists that were not
previously accessible to them. Even if people were downloading something for
free, a download presented an opportunity for future sales if a user liked what
he or she sampled, much like my experience with watching a freebie of Down to the Bone and then sending twenty
bucks in Debra Granik’s direction once the film came to DVD.
While a sample might be a potential sale for some, it’s a
theft for others. It’s Chinatown bootlegs for the masses, the industry honchoes
suggest. Downloaded gives ample time
to groups like Metallica, who launched a lawsuit that led to the downturn in
Napster and ushered in a form of sensational rhetoric to sway public opinion.
Many musicians in the film agree. But for every Lars Ulrich there’s a Henry
Rollins who describes the digital revolution as a boon for the music industry.
There was money to be had if the industry adapted to new modes of consumption. (There’s
also a hilarious bit of archival footage with Posh Spice, who doesn’t have a
clue what Napster is.) Alternatively, tools like Napster afford relatively
cheap outlets for distribution because content providers simply need to make a
single file of a song to reach an endless number of customers whereas the reach
of physical recordings is finite and expensive.
Downloaded
succeeds best, though, by drawing out the ramifications of the defeat of
Napster as a lose-lose situation for its producers, users, and the music
industry alike. Regardless of whether one sides with or against Napster, it’s
hard for one to overlook the underlying agreement within this tightly
constructed debate. The digital revolution, symbolized by Napster in this case,
put a fundamental ideological wedge between producers and consumers. People
like freebies, but business models rarely change to adapt in order to better
those below the top tier. The music industry failed all the same because it
sold out fans that merely want to enjoy music, but can’t afford to pay the full
price of a physical album.
The talking heads in Downloaded
provide an insightful and highly entertaining overview of the cultural,
commercial, technological and ideological influences wrought by Napster. Winter attacks the moral monster of Napster from all angles,
as Downloaded is almost painstakingly
objective in its comprehensive exploration of the Napster narrative. This
solidly-produced film accounts for virtually any clause for or against Napster.
Whether one sides with art or commerce, the film makes a strong case for both.
Rating: ★★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Downloaded screens:
Saturday, April 27 – 9:00 pm at the Isabel Bader
Sunday, April 28 – 3:30pm at the Scotiabank Cineplex
Friday, May 3 – 9:30 pm at the Fox
Pleases visit www.hotdocs.ca for more info on films,
tickets, and show times.
