VH-1 Documentary 'Downloaded" Review
By: MattInRC
Is the downloading of music illegal, or the "foundation of the future" as Internet activist John Perry Barlow postulates in the VH-1 documentary Downloaded? Either way, you'll like this fascinating backstory about Napster, the company in 2000 that brought users and their music libraries together, while scaring the bejesus out of the Recording Industry Association of America. Director Alex Winter mines opinions from both sides, including Napster founders Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker, who as college students introduced all of us to downloadable music. Their simple but ingenious program did nothing short of blindside a music industry that was too comfortable with its profits, proved the power of a burgeoning Internet, and showed the steps investors were willing to take to keep the company afloat.
Their unceremonious end in 2002 by a federal judge is harped upon by plenty of Napster supporters, which Winters parades before us like sheep to slaughter. Bands like Metallica and artists like Dr. Dre - representing musical styles centered on individual expression and independence - are painted in dim lights here, as single-minded profiteers, forcing the upstart to jettison its model and eventually sell to Rhapsody.
But Downloded also suggests that iTunes, and pay-for services such as Google Play, are merely the well-fed children of the independently minded 60's hippies that was Napster. And while Fanning (Spotify) and Parker (Facebook) went on to bigger and better things, it was Napster and its peer-to-peer model that Winter focuses most of his attention. The problem here is that Winter forgets that downloading pirated music is illegal, and is more than willing to share how crushing it was for Parker to be made the scapegoat without balancing that against what it cost musicians in lost profits. There's only a small section dedicated to the impacts on artists, which to me is as fascinating a tale as the one he presents. In the battle between big business and two college kids, theirs is the lost story of Downloaded, one that I hope someone will take on.
The stars aligned for Fanning and Parker, opening a door that allowed movies and other works to be downloaded on today's Information Superhighway. For better or worse, Downloaded tells a fascinating (but not a totally fair) story of when our lives changed forever.
Discuss this review with fellow SJF fans on Facebook. On Twitter, follow us at @SandwichJohnFilms, and follow author Matt Cummings at @mfc90125.
Please Leave A Comment-
Comments