Blog

Member States and the Commission mobilise to fight counterfeiting and piracy

Valerie | 15 Dec 2009, 11:14

The Intellectual Property Rights debate took a big step forwards this week when European member states and the European Commission met in Stockholm under the umbrella of the European Observatory for Counterfeiting and Piracy to build on practical initiatives to respond to the increasing threat of counterfeiting and piracy and foster administrative cooperation across the EU.

Hosted by the Swedish Presidency, the group will work on existing legal frameworks and establish a databank on the specific areas of threat facing the EU in recognition of the need for greater enforcement efforts through practical non legislative means.

Internal Market and Services Commissioner Charlie McCreevy said:

“The EU is a world pacesetter for innovation, culture and creativity. It is time to put a stop to organised criminals freeloading on the ingenuity and hard work of the most resourceful businesses in the world. Counterfeiting and piracy is an affliction that is bringing criminality ever closer to our doors. It destabilises our societies and threatens public safety and jobs. More than this it places our hard earned money into the hands of criminals who have no conscience about using it to fund other forms of crime, including drugs and pornography.

We must do more to protect ourselves and the Observatory is a fundamental step in bringing together Member States authorities, private businesses and consumers in a joint, concerted effort to rid ourselves of this dangerous problem.“

Audio content revenue has potential for real growth, conference reveals

Alastair | 04 Dec 2009, 09:03

A conference in central London on 30 November revealed the extent to which, under the right circumstances, there could be a significant growth in revenue for the sector and for UK plc.

The conference ‘Monetising Audio Content: the Way Forward’ was jointly organised by the DCMS, through c&binet and by the Radio Independents Group (RIG), the trade body for UK independent radio and audio content producers.

Read the full c&binet / Radio Independents Group Press release. 

Blog article and podcast of part of the conference coming soon.

New opportunities for newspapers set out by Google and the Daily Mirror

Andrew | 03 Dec 2009, 10:30

Two contrasting but encouraging market developments for newspaper economics have emerged in the past couple of days, just as the noble Lords begin debating the Digital Economy Bill in detail for the first time.

Google, on its official blog, has announced a new five-clicks-for-free option for publishers wanting to promote paywall protected content. Google’s move is an updating of its First Click Free feature. Publishers can now choose to allow users to view up to five pages per site per day for free then limit access to further content to those willing to register or make a payment.

Paid for site, FT.com, reports the move as Google making a ‘concession to publishers’ and the ‘latest effort to persuade content owners that it is an ally rather than an enemy.’

The website of the London Evening Standard – a free newspaper in hard copy since 12 October 2009 – reports Google’s ‘surprise’ move in the face of increasing pressure from publishers, particularly Rupert Murdoch and News Corporation. At a two-day workshop in Washington on the future of newspapers, Rupert Murdoch criticised aggregators for “feeding off the hard-earned efforts and investments of others.“

Meanwhile, at the 62nd World Newspaper Congress in Hyderabad, Matt Kelly, associate editor of the Daily Mirror has been talking about the success his newspaper’s redeveloped websites: ‘sites that perform well for humans, not search engines.’

In his speech Kelly says ‘the new look mirror.co.uk was the fastest growing newspaper website in the country; year-on-year growth of 100 per cent or more – and the highest proportion of UK users of any newspaper website in the country.’

Kelly attributes the success to focussing more on Mirror brand values and character and less on search engine optimisation (SEO), given that ‘traffic from search engines is ridiculously low for a newspaper website.’

The Mirror decided to go for ‘a more emotional methodology’ in its navigation – in other words, “gasp,” “Tee-hee” and “Phwoar” instead of “music news,” “celebrity news” and “film news.”

Ben Bradshaw: Digital Economy Bill published

Alastair | 20 Nov 2009, 13:11

There’s a lot of process in politics. The Digital Economy Bill was announced in the Queen’s Speech on Wednesday. Lord Young of Norwood Green introduced it in the House of Lords yesterday (on behalf of Lord Mandelson). We published the Bill in full on the BIS website this morning.

It will be debated in the Lords, examined line by line in committee stage, debated again, amended, debated again. Then same again in the Commons. Then it plays ping pong between the Houses until the exact wording is agreed before Royal Assent is given and it becomes an Act.

That’s a lot of process. But fundamentally politics is about choices.
The choice to publish the Bill now, to get legislation on the statue books as soon as possible to make sure Britain is one of the global digital and creative leaders. The choice to tackle unlawful file sharing and other copyright complications, while others argue it’s too difficult. To open up large volumes of previously unusable ‘orphan’ content. To protect children through age markings on video games.

The choice to ensure there’s plurality of independent, impartial news on TV in the nations, locally and regionally – and a future for the public service broadcasters that people love and which provide a platform for our world-leading creative industries.

That everyone in this country has a choice to be digital, with access to high speed broadband.
With Lord Mandelson, I’ll be making sure we use the process to get the product right.

Developing Talent: Focus on Young Entrepreneur - Myke Rabar, CEO, Homeboyz Entertainment Group

Valerie | 17 Nov 2009, 09:39

C&binet ambassador comment: Boko Inyundo, Global Sector Manager, Linklaters LLP & Director/Trustee, Africa Centre

“Leadership is to go before and show the way”, a favoured definition of Dee Hock, the Founder and CEO emeritus of VISA, shared in his wonderful book ‘One from Many – VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organisation”, a quote attributed to a centuries-old Scottish dictionary.

The book is about the impressive journey behind the creation of VISA, the global company that operates the world’s largest retail electronic payment network. However, the absorbing and profound aspect of this book is the author’s philosophical reflection on the institutional transformation that was necessary in enabling such a new form of organisation to emerge from the traditional establishment that is the global banking system. VISA was at that time, circa 1969, a new, trans-cultural organisation that balanced cooperation and competition, blended chaos and order and evolved a business model that productively dealt with complexity, diversity and change on a global scale.

There are myriad means of drawing correlations with Dee Hock’s experience in founding VISA and the evolving challenges and opportunities presented by today’s increasingly digital, global and culturally diverse world and the impact of a seemingly inexorable momentum of innovation across multiple arenas including the creative economy.
However, to illustrate what I mean here I purposefully opt not to tell you yet another tale behind the well publicised creation of such major global companies such as Google, Facebook or Spotify. Instead I share with you a more humble, yet for me as a person of mixed Kenyan and British heritage, equally inspiring story about a young Kenyan entrepreneur named Myke Rabar and the relatively nascent growth of his Nairobi-based media company, Homeboyz Entertainment Group.

Myke Rabar and Homeboyz Entertainment’s journey began in 1992 when a small group of music lovers got together to form a small organized DJ-ing outfit. There dream was to give the Entertainment Industry (which hardly existed at the time in Kenya) a fun-filled experience that audiences would always remember. With start-up capital of Kenya Shillings 40,000 (in today’s exchange rate circa £300 GBP) obtained through personal savings, the group initially rented equipment from other suppliers in order to entertain at events such as small house parties or weddings. After paying off the suppliers, the profit from such events was continually re-invested into the company and, in so doing, the group managed to start buying its own equipment. Thus this collective began to lay the foundations for what has now become an inspirational example of the potential for entrepreneurs in Africa’s creative economy.

Homeboyz Entertainment is now East & Central Africa’s biggest and most influential multi-media Entertainment Company, a Vivendi or Walt Disney-equivalent on the African continent. Employing over 40 dedicated staff, Homeboyz Entertainment Group now consists of a portfolio of companies: a DJ agency; a music technology academy; an events organisation; studios; a record label; a radio station; a TV station; an experiential marketing company and advertising production outfit; an acclaimed animation company; as well as, most recently, a company that bottles and retails mineral water!

Notably the growing global profile of this Entertainment group was evidenced in 2008/09 after ‘Tinga Tinga Tales’, a unique 52-episode animated series produced by UK independent television production company Tiger Aspect in association with Homeboyz Entertainment, was commissioned by CBeebies in the UK and Playhouse Disney in the US. In this groundbreaking collaboration, Tiger Aspect partnered with Homeboyz Entertainment to set up the first fully equipped animation studio in Kenya employing local designers, writers, musicians and animators. Based on African folk stories, ‘Tinga Tinga Tales’ now entertains children on a television near you as well as all over the world, telling how children’s favorite animals came to be. Why Lion Roars, Why Crocodile Has A Bumpy Back and Hippo Has No Hair are just a few of the episodes in the series.

This growth from a core business (DJ-ing) to a successful group structure consisting of a portfolio of creative products/interests is testament to a lot of hard work as well as belief in the inherent artistic and dynamic qualities of creative talent in East and Central Africa. The widely acknowledged achievements of Myke Rabar and Homeboyz Entertainment are all the more compelling in that the successes have been delivered in a developing economy such as Kenya. Such economies are yet to fully benefit from such critical contextual influences such as: the levels of technological investments seen in the West (e.g broadband infrastructure investments); the relatively large advertising spend by Corporates seen in developed economies; the relatively high discretionary income of, for example, US consumers; and the less evolved regulatory framework in Africa as compared to Europe or the UK, for example, where those generating or funding the development of creative products enjoy higher degrees of protection over their creative assets.

The success and sustainability of a creative business such as Homeboyz Entertainment is clearly increasingly dependent on the creative partnerships that, with the growing influence of technology, can now be forged by collaborating with artists, investors, producers, distributors, employees, clients and consumers at a global level. As per Dee Hock’s reflections, Myke is already exploring the potential behind cross-cultural creativity and balancing the complementary forces of cooperation and competition.

As the protracted global recessionary climate influences all communities to, I believe mistakenly, err on implementing more parochial strategies in a vain attempt to ensure survival, I hope that leaders/institutions emerge from the current economic crisis with an even clearer sense of the inherent strengths of a global collective spirit. Rather than solely trading with existing partners in developed economies, creative industry executives in the major economies such as the US and Europe should follow in the footsteps of, in this case, Tiger Aspect by listening attentively to the many ‘voices’ of artists and entrepreneurs like Myke in Africa whose inspiration needs to be met by a global creative industry that’s willing to believe in them and buy their skills/products at fair global commercial rates. Like Barack Obama, the US President of Kenyan descent, who mobilised popular support across different communities and campaigned with a philosophy that encouraged us all to believe that ‘yes, we can’ make change happen, for many members of the global African Diaspora’s creative community and beyond, leaders like Myke are living proof of the ‘audacity of hope’.

If “leadership is to go before and show the way”, then Myke and Homeboyz Entertainment are, especially in the context of Africa and its attendant challenges, up there in front showing a generation of young Africans the way to a sustainable future in the global creative economy. Like the mineral water bottling company that Myke’s recently acquired, this is a truly refreshing narrative which, given he’s only in his late 30’s, has only just begun!

In a video-led world we all need to be creators

Andrew | 13 Nov 2009, 11:21

C&binet partner comment: by Sarah Platt, UK Director of Kinura Web Video

With copyright debates abounding at last week’s c&binet Forum, there was also, unsurprisingly, much talk of online video content. The conference itself was streamed live (view the archived footage), and the virtual audience could feed comments and questions to the panel on stage through twitter (#cabinetforum), allowing them not only to ‘follow’ but to participate, opening up global access to anyone unable to attend. This is just one example of organisations and brands using digital media to keep their audiences engaged. Through the evolution of social networking and video sharing sites, more and more consumers expect to be able to access content in real time to inform the online debate, creating new business opportunities for those specialising in delivering events via the web.

Creative consumers have now become producers, sharing comments, images and snippets of film: creating their own discussions. In this instantaneous environment where rich media just gets richer, there is an immense opportunity to educate and to learn online.

The amount of video based educational content out there already is vast. You may already know of Teacher’s TV, Discovery Education, TED and Open Learn from the Open University. And then there are all the education channels on YouTube, plus online courses being offered by arts organisations like Tate and the British Museum.

But we need to remember that the rise of video communications demands that individuals become skilled creators. Younger people may be less camera-shy than their predecessors, but there is still a need for investment in training adults and children alike to communicate effectively using software, recording equipment and webTV applications so they can tell their stories and make an impact in a world where immediacy, ‘findability’ and attention grabbing is everything.

Some of you may remember the days when ‘video based learning’ meant gathering around a bulky TV that had just been wheeled into the classroom so you could get your weekly fix of a BBC schools programme. Now imagine the TV wheeled into your classroom showed a programme that listened, talked back and had more than one possible ending depending on what you wanted to know. Oh – and then you could shrink it, put it in your pocket and watch it whenever suited you. You might have paid more attention in class. 

There’s a lot of research out there which suggests that computer based learning is very effective in terms of increasing people’s ability to retain information. But what really excites me about this area is the potential use of interactive feedback, live video links between tutors and their students, online collaboration through applications like scribblar and beyond that into potential applications for linking up real-time medical monitoring devices or biometric information. Imagine the latest research in life saving treatments being delivered instantaneously to a doctor working in a remote village where she or he may previously have had to travel miles to gain such essential information.

We have a great opportunity in the UK to tap into the wealth of information online, to build on the talent we already have and find talent in new places through digital inclusion. We should make our ‘creative industries’ a part of every day life so that we all have the chance to be creators.
Interactive video based learning, and the flexibility and access to instant education that it offers, makes for a better-informed life. Just as investment in creativity makes for a more interesting one.