Blog

Rethinking the notion of piracy

Valerie | 18 May 2009, 08:15

C&binet comment: Peter Jenner, legendary manager & artist advocate for bands like Pink Floyd.

Peter Jenner has managed musicians since 1966 with a repertoire of artists including Pink Floyd, Billy Bragg and Eddi Reader.  He has spoken publicly about the issue of music piracy before and now offers his solution to c&binet.

Lets get rid of the idea of Piracy and Theft when looking at the internet and p2p exchanges of music, despite Pirate Bay.

Piracy and theft both involve the notion of property, which is finite (in economic terms: scarce), and which if stolen by someone from you no longer belongs to you, but then belongs to someone else.

In the digital world scarcity is not an issue. Each copy of a file merely increases the supply of that file, and the original still exists. If you copy my file I still have it. If someone then directly or indirectly sells that copy I am no poorer. I might be annoyed that they did not ask my permission, but they have not caused me damage.

So I suggest we use the less emotive, less glamorous word ‘unauthorised’ to describe the copying of a file without permission. This lowers the emotional level of the discussion and we can look at the issue of ‘authorisation’ or ‘remuneration’. We can look at the underlying issue of how to ensure that resources are properly transferred to the creator from the user of that file. ( Another word change, ‘user’ rather than ‘consumer’ is also desirable. Something consumed is gone, something used can be used again).

The challenge of the digital age is not to maintain an existing industrial / commercial structure but rather working out how to create a new environment, which delivers a result that society wants. I presume this includes a social structure where people can create content, where there is some form of payment for the use of that content , and which is consistent with the costs involved in both the fixed initiation costs of creation, and the marginal costs of reproduction and exchange.

We might also decide that we want to continue with a system of promotion and marketing of those creative goods, which will also have to be paid for, but that is a secondary concern. The present debate seems to be mostly about protecting the financing of the industry built around the physical manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion of the creative goods, rather than the welfare of the creators. When the spokespeople for an industry start talking about their concern for the creators one should be suspicious. When they are also trying to hobble a new distribution system we need to be doubly suspicious.

Let us talk to the creators, and lets talk to the new distributors, and the users of the music and work out a system which gets the best results for those essential people, then let us worry about the financiers, the marketers, the promotion people, and even the managers. The only people who really matter are the creators and the users, all the rest of us in between have to justify their position in the new environment.

Creative Industries take centre stage in UK recession recovery and future prosperity

Valerie | 15 May 2009, 12:30

Feargal Sharkey (right) and Andy Burnham at the Knotty Ash Youth Centre, Liverpool
(Image reproduced by kind permission from the  Liverpool Daily Post)

In recognition of the economic and social power of the UK’s burgeoning creative industries – a subject which c&binet regularly explores on this blog – the Government announced plans this week to create between five and ten thousand new jobs for young people in the culture and creative industries sectors, highlighting the significant role they play in achieving economic recovery and future prosperity.

‘Lifting People Lifting Places’ outlines the Government‘s priorities for the Department for Media, Culture & Sport (DCMS), its partners across the cultural and sports world and in local government for the new economy to demonstrate the positive contribution that creative sectors can make in difficult times to people’s lives and the places in which they live.

Outlining the Government’s vision for how culture, media and sport can play a part in helping the economy recover, Andy Burnham said:

“Rather than sitting on the fringes, culture, sport and the creative industries are part of the core script for recovery and future prosperity…

“As a decade of record investment has helped our cultural and sporting institutions to be the best they can be – better placed not just to help solve the problems of the downturn, but to make a more significant contribution to the new economy that emerges, providing more jobs and generating more income.”

Under the plans laid out by Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell and Culture Secretary Andy Burnham, local councils, third sector groups, arts organisations and creative industry bodies will be able to bid for Government funding for new, innovative jobs as part of the £1.1bn Future Jobs Fund announced in the Budget last month.

UK Music has already has been working with the Government to explore how the creative industries can help get young people into work and they plan to develop a pathfinder project, working with Jobcentre Plus to offer up to 200 jobs to young unemployed people around this summer’s music festivals.

Alongside this and following the recent announcement from communities secretary Hazel Blears and Andy Burnham of a £3m fund to breathe new life into local communities through the use of vacant shops by musicians and other creative industries, the music industry and Government also this week launched UK Music’s new rehearsal rooms at the Knotty Ash Youth Centre in Liverpool. Aspiring musicians and bands will benefit from the first professionally equipped, Government funded music rehearsal space, with five other spaces due to opened in the coming months, in Bristol, Washington, Hastings, St Austell and rural Norfolk.

These initiatives mark the first time the Government and the cultural sectors have come together in a joint effort to ensure that this generation of young people looking for work opportunities are supported via a full programme of support which includes jobs, mentoring and skills development.

By investing now – in cultural, creative and sports-related jobs and training for young people, in regeneration projects for our communities, and in new cultural and sporting opportunities for everyone – the Government is nurturing creative talent and resources for the new economy that will emerge in a highly connected, fully digital world.

France sets global precedent with tough internet anti-piracy laws

Valerie | 15 May 2009, 07:14

As the anti-piracy debate heats up in the UK, which has this week seen a coalition of creative industries led by the UK’s largest media groups lobby the Government to force ISPs to take a greater role in the prevention of internet piracy, French politicians have given the go ahead for tough new laws against internet piracy.

The proposed French legislation – the controversial “three strikes” law – could see alleged copyright infringers disconnected from the web without legal recourse.

The BBC argues that it sets an important global precedent for anti-piracy groups in the UK and elsewhere in Europe and is being closely watched by other governments as a potential deterrent.

The legislation, which is backed by President Nicolas Sarkozy, will operate under a three-stage system. A new state agency called the ‘High Authority of Diffusion of the Art Works and Protection of Rights on the Internet’ –  or Hadopi for short – would first send illegal file-sharers a warning e-mail, then a letter, and finally cut off their connection for a year if they were caught a third time.

The film and record industries have backed the bill but some groups have claimed that the measure would be a violation of individuals’ rights.

The socialist parliamentarian Patrick Bloche said the bill was “dangerous, useless, inefficient, and very risky for us citizens”.

Earlier this week, the Directors Guild of America, the body representing the interests of film and television directors in the US motion picture industry, said its national board had passed a resolution in support of the law.

DGA president Michael Apted said:

“The DGA believes that online piracy is among the greatest of threats to the health and future of the creative industries… The French model is remarkable because it creates a solution that enforces the idea that piracy is serious, while avoiding unfair punitive or financial measures and the quagmire of endless lawsuits.”

In the UK, the umbrella group that represents ISPs has rejected calls for them to police the net and said that disconnecting users would be a “disproportionate response”.

However, Barbara Follett MP, minister for the creative industries, told a conference of industry executives in London that the government was considering a system of warning letters to offenders with the threat of legal action, rather than disconnection and are instead looking to build on the memorandum of understanding set up last year between government, ISPs and rights holders.

As the debate continues to provoke heated discussions across the content industry, Jean-Bernard Lévy, the French CEO of entertainment conglomerate Vivendi will be taking part in a c&binet event in October to help co-ordinate international action on IP commercialisation and protection.

Vodafone joins mobile phone applications rush

Valerie | 14 May 2009, 08:23

The Guardian reports that Vodafone is the latest company to join the mobile phone applications gold rush with the launch of its own apps store as it looks to recoup revenues from rivals such as Apple, Nokia and Google.

Vodafone announced on Tuesday that it is releasing a set of software tools that will allow developers and companies to create Web applications for its 289 million customers.  Vodafone will take a 30% cut of any charge levied by application developers when the service goes live in the autumn.

The Guardian acknowledges that the floodgates for creativity and innovation in the development of mobile phone apps were thrown open by the launch of iPhone last year:

“While it has been possible to create and download applications on to handsets for years, the arrival of the iPhone has revolutionised the market and driven a wedge between the mobile phone companies and their customers, leaving the network itself as little more than a broadband “pipe in the air”.

A number of brands have already followed in Apple’s footsteps. Nokia, the world’s largest handset manufacturer created its own store under the Ovi bran and Microsoft recently opened its Windows Mobile Marketplace to developers ahead of a consumer launch later in the year.

Rajeev Chand, a senior equity research analyst at Rutberg & Co predicts that this trend will continue:

“For the next two to three years, app stores will play a very meaningful role in the mobile experience of users. There’s activity in the product development space that I think it’s going to happen.“

Forbes notes the significance of the news for the content industry:

“Vodafone’s announcement shows that operators are keenly interested in hosting their own app stores too. The entrance of more carriers could alter the mobile apps market, affecting the fortunes of consumers, developers, manufacturers and content companies.”

Study highlights IP challenge for popular brands

Valerie | 14 May 2009, 07:04

Brands are coming under serious pressure currently as price becomes one of the major driving factors for customer selection, however many are also facing the kind of IP challenges usually the domain of content creating industries such as music and film.

A new study from the British Brands Group (BBG) into consumer shopping habits reveals “compelling evidence” that shoppers may be being duped by cheap copycat versions of popular leading brands with everything from shampoo to biscuits having cheap “lookalike” products manufactured in their image. One in three customers admitted in the report that they had accidentally bought the wrong product because its packaging was similar to that of a well-known brand, whilst 65% of shoppers said similar packaging can be confusing or misleading.

Supermarkets in particular came under fire in the study for using similar packaging to more familiar brands. Among the copycat brand ‘culprits’ named were Asda’s You’d Butter believe it margarine which uses the same distinctive yellow and blue packaging as the Unilever owned I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter packs and Lidl’s Jammy Rings and Aldi’s Jammy Devils which closely resemble Jammie Dodgers.

Labeling the action “parasitic copying”, John Noble, Director of the BBG said:

“This research proves what we have known for a long time: products that hijack established brand identities trick consumers into buying them.

“More than ever in these difficult economic times, shoppers need both value for money and the reassurance that comes from buying a brand which they trust will deliver on its promises. Exposing consumers in such a blatant way to misleading alternatives demonstrates a cynical approach.”

The Guardian notes that the BBG’s anger is not unexpected given the group represents the big brands, and particularly as copycat branding delivers the obvious benefits of market research and advertising that have been paid for by someone else.

The BBG is calling for the Office of Fair Trading and Trading Standards to investigate and take legal action where breaches occur.

Jean-Bernard Lévy, CEO of Vivendi announced as first key note speaker at c&binet Forum

Valerie | 12 May 2009, 13:02

C&binet has announced the first key note speaker for the inaugural 2009 forum, taking place in Hertfordshire between October 26th- 28th 2009. Jean-Bernard Lévy , CEO of Vivendi, will address hundreds of international creative business leaders gathered for the event. 

Vivendi is a world leader in communications and entertainment. It is the number one publisher of video games and music in the world and a major player in television, film and telecommunications.  Its business reflects the growing interdependence of creative content production and distribution which will enable Jean-Bernard Levy to offer a unique perspective on the issues c&binet is tackling.

Speaking about the forum, Jean-Bernard Lévy, CEO of Vivendi, said: “Creative content drives our industry.  That’s why C&binet is such a timely and significant initiative. The creative sector, driven by technological advances in TV, film and music through to video games and telecommunications, is rapidly evolving. We need to address the issues that arise from these transformations collectively. I’m really looking forward to everyone sharing ideas about how we can achieve this.”

Andy Burnham, Secretary of State for the UK Department for the Department of Culture Media & Sport (DCMS), commented: “This is a critical time for the creative industries. In recent months it has become increasingly clear that the single most important issue affecting all content creators and distributors is how to make sure that creativity is rewarded. The global economic situation has escalated the urgency and we must support the sector to find a solution. By bringing together international leaders from the creative economy with domestic and international policy makers, we hope to make real progress in the key issues which jeopardise the sector’s future.

“As well as addressing issues around content and IP protection, the c&binet forum is also an opportunity to develop new links which enable capital and investment to flow towards creative talent. Jean-Bernard Lévy’s experience of running one of the world’s biggest communications and entertainment companies will offer invaluable insight to this debate.”