At stake in the long run is the global agora: the universal library- movie theater-television-concert hall-museum on the Internet. The legal and social precedents set by Metallica v. Napster -- and half a dozen other e-music lawsuits-are likely to ramify into film and video as these, too, move online. When true electronic books, e-magazines, and e-newspapers become readily available, their rules of operation may well be shaped by the creation of the heavenly jukebox. Music, according to a National Research Council report released last November, is the "canary in the digital coal mine." (Mann, 2000, p. 39)

The initial response of the entertainment industry has been negative, in that the music and video industry responded to fears that demonstrated a lack of willingness to alter marketing and outlet options to electronic forms, as technology had not quite met the expansion, but now things are changing and technology has created a viable evolution in the industry to meet demands. Additionally issues like legitimate armature video sharing has created an opportunity, unlike any other where individuals can share and seek out novel video and music materials and the industry can recognize new talent.

Another issue in the entertainment industry as the Internet is concerned is internet gambling. An offering that has expanded the role of gambling exponentially into every wired home. Opportunities to gamble may seem dangerous to the conservative mind set, when so many people can get in serious trouble gambling...

Also the internet gambling sites are available in every wired home, even where such activity is deemed illegal, putting users and owners at serious potential risk.
A book uploaded on the Net can violate an author's copyright; a chat room participant can defame someone outside the chat room; terrorists can promulgate bomb-making or kidnapping tips; merchants can conspire to fix prices by e-mail; a corporation can issue a fraudulent security; a pornographer can sell kiddie porn; Internet gambling can decrease in-state gambling revenues and cause family strife; and so on. In these and many other ways, communications by cyberspace produce harmful, real-world effects on those who have not consented to the private ordering of the cyberspace community.(Goldsmith, 2003, p. 44)

The foundations of the potential for the good and the bad of the changes that the internet are creating in the entertainment industry are well founded in the culture already but have yet to realize the full extent of the need for concern and alteration.

Works Cited

Goldsmith, Jack L. "3 Against Cyberanarchy." Who Rules the Net? Internet Governance and Jurisdiction. Ed. Adam Thierer and Clyde Wayne Crews. Washington, DC: Cato Institute, 2003. 31-70.

Mann, Charles C. "The Heavenly Jukebox." The Atlantic Monthly Sept. 2000: 39.

Nicholson, Laura J., Tom F. Shebar, and Meredith R. Weinberg. "Computer Crimes." American Criminal Law Review…