The year 1999 is recognized by many as a watershed year for the Internet.
In August of that year, Shawn Fanning, the 19-year-old who created Napster in a fit of Red Bull soda-fueled coding, instantly transformed anyone who used it from a passive settler for sub-par radio pop into a music hedonist, someone with the power, suddenly, to choose.
When Pepsi allied with Apples iTunes in a new advertising campaign aimed at training consumers to buy music online, they also determined the right price for a song downloaded off the Internet: one bottlecap.
Writing on the Straight GoodS website, Robert Labossiere suggests that Pepsi’s deal with iTunes sounds a sour note, as does their anti-establishment advertising campaign which, to Labossiere’s sensibilties, smacks of self-serving music industry hypocrisy.
For a more academic analysis of the issue, read Christopher May’s peer-reviewed essay “Digital rights management and the breakdown of social norms”, published by the University of Illinois’ First Monday magazine.
