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Plot Summary
In 1999, teenagers Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker launched the file-sharing service Napster. What had begun as a largely unknown underground distribution medium erupted into a global revolution. Directed with a deftness of skill by Alex Winter (yes, Bill of "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure"), the film charts the rise of the online music-sharing service and the contribution it made in leading up to the current ubiquity of digital media sharing, as well as its incalculable effect on the music industry. With interviews with musicians such as Mike D of The Beastie Boys, Oasis' Noel Gallagher and Henry Rollins; industry executives such as Hilary Rosen, formerly of the RIAA; and civil and digital rights pioneers such as John Perry Barlow and Lawrence Lessig, Downloaded is an enlightening and entertaining education in where we have been in the digital space and how that has informed where we are now. A FilmBuff Presentation.
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Rotten Tomatoes Movie Reviews
TOMATOMETER
67%- Reviews Counted: 12
- Fresh: 8
- Rotten: 4
- Average Rating: 6.5/10
Top Critics' Reviews
Fresh: An independent Napster may be gone, but its impact reverberates, not least in the continuing threat to intellectual property.
Fresh: As iffy as the coulda-been premise is, "Downloaded" is still a vigorous retelling of Fanning's and Parker's wildfire achievement and its ethical pitfalls ...
Rotten: The doc is only about as revealing as a middling magazine article on the subject. But it will fascinate and frustrate anyone already interested ...
Fresh: As you watch the film, you'll be amazed how the world of the Internet turns the recent into the ancient: In a matter of only a few years, a world-changing digital event like Napster has become so last century.
Customer Reviews
I give tribute to their actions
If not for the actions of these men, we would most likely still be stuck with Compact Discs. They compelled the music industry to provide consumers choice.
Irony
Pay your 4 bucks to "download" this movie off iTunes and then laugh at the irony of it all. These kids truely revolutionized the world we live in today. Music "someday on your cell phone"? Huggh??!! What??? Really? Truely awesome documentary.
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