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PRS for Music Chief Executive Robert Ashcroft
We are all aware that the internet has brought massive change across the creative sectors, allowing the free flow of information and entertainment content, transforming the way we interact with the world. It has also allowed rampant piracy to cannibalise our industry. Increased demand for music has been accompanied by a distortion in its market value.
In our annual Adding up the UK music industry report, published last month, we found that both piracy and competition from other forms of entertainment continue to diminish music revenues. Recorded music income fell by nearly eight percent last year, as people spent less on CDs and DVDs. Although the UK is now the global leader in per capita spend on digital music, value has not increased enough to compensate for the decline in sales of physical media.
There may well be a sense of entitlement among some music fans who download copyright music free of charge, but I believe that others do so simply because they do not realise their actions are wrong. It was heartening, therefore, to read in the government’s response to the Hargreaves review an acknowledgement that we need proper commitment to educating the public about copyright.
We fully understand and agree, and have proposed a guide to help internet users identify legal content. It works like a traffic light system to create a distinction between legal and illegal works and empower music fans to assess websites before they download from them. I believe the very least our industry can do to protect the work of music creators and rightsholders is to indicate alongside internet search results what is licensed and what is not, and am encouraged to see the government’s thinking so closely aligned with our own in this respect.
The government also accepted Hargreaves’ recommendations to legalise private copying, or format shifting, of copyright works onto multiple digital music players and computers for personal use. However, the proposal that this be done without compensation to rightsholders would place the UK at odds with European legislation. We have never benefited from a private copy levy in the UK and should consider whether harmonisation with other European countries may now be justified. Above all, we should be on our guard to ensure that emerging cloud locker services remain licensable under UK law and do not fall into any future definition of format shifting without compensation.
Last month, the government also called for Ofcom to establish infringement benchmarks and begin trend-watching online copyright breaches, the better to understand the issues at play. This brings to mind the recent Newzbin vs. Motion Picture Association of America (MPA) case, in which the High Court Judge Mr Justice Arnold ruled in favour of the MPA, ordering the internet service provider BT to block access to the Newzbin website.
Justice Arnold said that BT was fully aware that its customers were using the Newzbin 2 aggregator service to access pirated material online. It is clear from this landmark case that both the legal system and the creative industries are becoming increasingly focused on protecting copyright and we should draw some comfort from this, though on the other hand Ofcom has determined that the site-blocking provisions of the Digital Economy Act are ‘unworkable’. On balance, therefore, I am concerned that site-blocking may not be a practical measure to which content owners have recourse under UK law.
Meanwhile, in the US, the MPA and a majority of the major internet service providers have reached voluntary agreement to apply technical measures to persistent copyright infringers and I see no reason why we should not implement a similar voluntary system in the UK. There are always people in society who will take what they want because they can and we need as a society to set boundaries. On the internet this should start with better information to guide the honest majority and continue with effective measures to deter those who persist in accessing pirated material.
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What are online ‘traffic lights’?
The concept of online traffic lights is intended to clearly signpost legal and illegal content to internet users. The traffic light — a green tick or red cross — would appear next to website links in search engines. The symbols can be applied to both national and international websites, and they can help meet the consumer education requirements of the Digital Economy Act 2010 and deliver Government proposals to empower the consumer to make better choices.
The scheme sits as part of a complementary package of voluntary, legislative, and judicial measures, all aimed at tackling online copyright infringement.
We are all aware that the internet has brought massive change across the creative sectors, allowing the free flow of information and entertainment content, transforming the way we interact with the world. It has also allowed rampant piracy to cannibalise our industry. Increased demand for music has been accompanied by a distortion in its market value.
In our annual Adding up the UK music industry report, published last month, we found that both piracy and competition from other forms of entertainment continue to diminish music revenues. Recorded music income fell by nearly eight percent last year, as people spent less on CDs and DVDs. Although the UK is now the global leader in per capita spend on digital music, value has not increased enough to compensate for the decline in sales of physical media.
There may well be a sense of entitlement among some music fans who download copyright music free of charge, but I believe that others do so simply because they do not realise their actions are wrong. It was heartening, therefore, to read in the government’s response to the Hargreaves review an acknowledgement that we need proper commitment to educating the public about copyright.
We fully understand and agree, and have proposed a guide to help internet users identify legal content. It works like a traffic light system to create a distinction between legal and illegal works and empower music fans to assess websites before they download from them. I believe the very least our industry can do to protect the work of music creators and rightsholders is to indicate alongside internet search results what is licensed and what is not, and am encouraged to see the government’s thinking so closely aligned with our own in this respect.
Increased demand for music has been accompanied by a distortion in its market value
The government also accepted Hargreaves’ recommendations to legalise private copying, or format shifting, of copyright works onto multiple digital music players and computers for personal use. However, the proposal that this be done without compensation to rightsholders would place the UK at odds with European legislation. We have never benefited from a private copy levy in the UK and should consider whether harmonisation with other European countries may now be justified. Above all, we should be on our guard to ensure that emerging cloud locker services remain licensable under UK law and do not fall into any future definition of format shifting without compensation.
Last month, the government also called for Ofcom to establish infringement benchmarks and begin trend-watching online copyright breaches, the better to understand the issues at play. This brings to mind the recent Newzbin vs. Motion Picture Association of America (MPA) case, in which the High Court Judge Mr Justice Arnold ruled in favour of the MPA, ordering the internet service provider BT to block access to the Newzbin website.
Justice Arnold said that BT was fully aware that its customers were using the Newzbin 2 aggregator service to access pirated material online. It is clear from this landmark case that both the legal system and the creative industries are becoming increasingly focused on protecting copyright and we should draw some comfort from this, though on the other hand Ofcom has determined that the site-blocking provisions of the Digital Economy Act are ‘unworkable’. On balance, therefore, I am concerned that site-blocking may not be a practical measure to which content owners have recourse under UK law.
Meanwhile, in the US, the MPA and a majority of the major internet service providers have reached voluntary agreement to apply technical measures to persistent copyright infringers and I see no reason why we should not implement a similar voluntary system in the UK. There are always people in society who will take what they want because they can and we need as a society to set boundaries. On the internet this should start with better information to guide the honest majority and continue with effective measures to deter those who persist in accessing pirated material.
------------------------------------------------
What are online ‘traffic lights’?
The concept of online traffic lights is intended to clearly signpost legal and illegal content to internet users. The traffic light — a green tick or red cross — would appear next to website links in search engines. The symbols can be applied to both national and international websites, and they can help meet the consumer education requirements of the Digital Economy Act 2010 and deliver Government proposals to empower the consumer to make better choices.
The scheme sits as part of a complementary package of voluntary, legislative, and judicial measures, all aimed at tackling online copyright infringement.
