http://www.mywordsontheweb.com/jack/napster/ Sun, 21 Mar 2010 02:45:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.4 http://www.mywordsontheweb.com/jack/napster/#comment-1171 Thu, 02 Nov 2006 20:59:29 +0000 http://www.mywordsontheweb.com/jack/napster/#comment-1171 [...] Once touted as the most downloaded woman on the Internet, Cindy Margolis is making her nude debut in the December, 2006 issue of Playboy Magazine. At the not-so-tender age of 40, Cindy is undoubtedly beyond the physical prime that once accounted for her online popularity. Yet, as many aging actresses and imminently forgotten female celebs have done before her, she’s decided to pose nude in what must be the hopes of a last hoorah. Playboy has an incomparable track record of wooing female celebs onto its pages. Part of the allure for prospective celeb centerfolds must be that Playboy promises to make them look good, sometimes better than they ever looked before, even if it takes a little airbrushing and mood lighting to achieve the desired effect. As fans we are generally happy to have whatever glimpse of them we can get. For the female celeb, especially if there is already a large amount of extant photography (as in Cindy’s case), the Playboy images may become the definitive images of their career — displacing less flattering or controversial images from the public attention. It is naive of Playboy, however, and a tragic shortsale of the potential benefit to the model, to try to preserve these images exclusively in the medium of print. It is impossible to prevent their digitization and rampant dissemination upon the Internet. It is also far beyond the capacity of even the most well-funded and determined of companies to police the unauthorized duplication and use of images upon the Web — especially when they have been so widely distributed in print. I have a great deal of respect for the Playboy organization and even enjoy the friendship of several Playboy employees. I must, however, encourage them to think more creatively and to try to conceive of an image publication strategy that understands the New Medium — one that exploits the behavior of content “pirates” and feeds the appetites of the consumer public, rather than squander resources trying to stem a torrent that will not be suppressed. In 2000, I wrote an essay about Napster that relates. [...] […] Once touted as the most downloaded woman on the Internet, Cindy Margolis is making her nude debut in the December, 2006 issue of Playboy Magazine. At the not-so-tender age of 40, Cindy is undoubtedly beyond the physical prime that once accounted for her online popularity. Yet, as many aging actresses and imminently forgotten female celebs have done before her, she’s decided to pose nude in what must be the hopes of a last hoorah. Playboy has an incomparable track record of wooing female celebs onto its pages. Part of the allure for prospective celeb centerfolds must be that Playboy promises to make them look good, sometimes better than they ever looked before, even if it takes a little airbrushing and mood lighting to achieve the desired effect. As fans we are generally happy to have whatever glimpse of them we can get. For the female celeb, especially if there is already a large amount of extant photography (as in Cindy’s case), the Playboy images may become the definitive images of their career — displacing less flattering or controversial images from the public attention. It is naive of Playboy, however, and a tragic shortsale of the potential benefit to the model, to try to preserve these images exclusively in the medium of print. It is impossible to prevent their digitization and rampant dissemination upon the Internet. It is also far beyond the capacity of even the most well-funded and determined of companies to police the unauthorized duplication and use of images upon the Web — especially when they have been so widely distributed in print. I have a great deal of respect for the Playboy organization and even enjoy the friendship of several Playboy employees. I must, however, encourage them to think more creatively and to try to conceive of an image publication strategy that understands the New Medium — one that exploits the behavior of content “pirates” and feeds the appetites of the consumer public, rather than squander resources trying to stem a torrent that will not be suppressed. In 2000, I wrote an essay about Napster that relates. […]

]]> http://www.mywordsontheweb.com/jack/napster/#comment-3 Mon, 12 Sep 2005 01:25:12 +0000 http://www.mywordsontheweb.com/jack/napster/#comment-3 [...] Napsterjack posted in Essays, etc., Business, 2000 on September 11th, 2005 [...] […] Napsterjack posted in Essays, etc., Business, 2000 on September 11th, 2005 […]

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