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C&binet forum opening night discussion roundup
Andrew | 26 Oct 2009, 20:47
C&binet forum 2009 opened with a discussion led by Newsweek’s Stryker McGuire, who interviewed a panel consisting of Secretary of State Ben Bradshaw MP, Wired UK editor David Rowan and c&binet ambassador Professor Phil Redmond about the state of the creative economy.
The Secretary of State revealed that the growth of the UK’s creative economy endured the recession, despite some of the problems caused by a shrinking advertising market and defended the role of government spending on culture, arguing that a £1 investment by the DCMS delivers a £5 return in terms of economic activity stimulated. David Rowan echoed this positive outlook by arguing that the UK punches above his weight in every area of the creative sector but he suggested that SMEs have too little access to government (something that c&binet can play a role in remedying), which was a theme he carried through to his presentation of the Creative Economy in 2010 exhibition. Rowan also pointed out that copyright issues were not the only issue which government needs to address, referring to the risk of creative brain drain and arguing that the industry needed to move on from discussions about copyright. The Secretary of State replied that it was only possible to move on once some sort of solution had been reached.
Phil Redmond argued that the digital age represents a unique opportunity for creatives to engage with their consumers directly, which he believes every creative business person is excited about. He also tried to put the current disruption in an historical context, suggesting that the media industry had always struggled against restrictive practices and regulatory regimes. David Rowan said the recent use of Twitter to overturn legal injunctions against the Guardian newspaper’s attempts to report Parliamentary questions showed that technology couldn’t be tamed. The same would hold true for the copyright challenge, he said. Stryker McGuire concluded by speaking up for the performance of Britain’s creative entrepreneurs, who he said had exploded the myth that Britain doesn’t do entrepreneurialism.
Following on from the opening discussion was a debate on illegal file sharing, moderated by Tim Suter. 
This was not a panel of extreme views. It was a discussion that started with a universal belief that artists should receive re-numeration for their content. The point was made that the genie was out of the bottle and that technical measures could only ever amount to “speed bumps” in the fight against illegal filesharing. There was some recognition of this with panelists seeing technical measures as the legislative backdrop which would encourage consumers to move back towards rewarding creators for their products. ISPs had a role to play in this, working with the industry to develop new business models and then encouraging users to take advantage of them. There was though a view that many of those that illegally fileshared did so because they saw a rich and indulgent content industry that did not need the extra money that their legal purchase would provide. The music industry in particular needed to better connect with their consumers to show that illegal filesharing did real harm to up and coming artists.
Clare Reddington, who’s talking at c&binet on Wednesday, has written about the first day on her blog.
