Exploring Copyright, Music Piracy and Cultural Industries

Erose Sthapit Intellectual Property Rights in Media and Cultural Industries - (OLAW0604)

Intellectual Property (IP)

Creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce Ownership, potential economic gain, powerful incentive to innovate Divided into two categories - Industrial property and Copyright Europe and North America leading in global arena Asia and Africa, responding in steps emphasizing IP

Violation of IPR - Music Piracy

Form of copyright infringement, crime in many countries Worst types of intellectual property crimes Negative impact - user, provider and artists Disastrous results - local cultural industries, creativity, economic development Music, strength, protection through copyright & related rights Non-physical, negligible marginal cost of reproduction and digitally delivered Internet and digital technologies - online downloading, sharing of digital music and counterfeiting

Historical and present context

Cassette tapes and home recording devices (1970s) 1976, Universal Studios and Walt Disney Productions sued Sony Corporation for the home recorder; 8 years later, legal to record entertainment on a recorder (struggle over music piracy) 1999, Napster, first peer-to-peer service (P2P), 87% music traded copyrighted Began to take over, followed by Kazaa, Morpheus 2002, P2P service registered 100 million users Government crack down on these programs In todays world, high speed internet, wireless networks and P2P file sharing challenge the global music market

Economic Impact
31 countries, larger pirated music markets than commercial Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Paraguay, Russia, Spain, and Ukraine - unacceptable levels of music piracy 2003, Pakistan (84% of music sold is pirated), produced 230 million copies of both CDs and DVDs. 25 million copies sold within the country, remaining 205 million copies sold throughout the world 2003, piracy, 120,000 job losses in the US and 100,000 in the EU Global music industry, from $40 billion to $32 billion, 2 years: 2000 to 2002 2003, international authorities seized 56 million fake units of music

Local cultural industries perspective

Activities, goods and services within the cultural sector that carry cultural content and symbolic meaning Radio & television broadcasting, film production, book & periodical publishing, video & sound recording, theatre & musical performance etc. Developing countries, production of counterfeited products and lack of government intervention Discourages manufacturers of legitimate goods from establishing facilities Loss of FDI, technology transfer and foreign know-how Local creators, inventors, and SMEs discouraged by illegal counterfeiting Prevents future growth, the very spirit and energy are at stake

Social Impacts
Mostly affect the artists, creators, and entrepreneurs Products of local musicians, music groups, record companies, and distributors, pushed out of the market by the counterfeit copies Low price No artwork, lyrics, or printed material which accompany legitimate copies No guarantee as to quality Affects national efforts to promote local culture and identity

Recent legal practices & strategies (legal)

Collaboration International recording industry with MasterCard, Visa, London Police Legal action Identify infringing websites Prevent them from being granted card payment facilities

Hadopi graduated response law Decline in P2P levels, 26% in France, 2 million P2P users stooped the activity US, ISP graduated response programme being implemented with major ISPs New Zealand, graduated response law implemented 2011, indications of impact Italy and Belgium, decline in visits to infringing sites by 70-80% Spain, a new law introduced to block illegal websites

Challenges (Social Science Research Council)

Music piracy, rampant - Brazil, India, Russia, South Africa, Mexico and Bolivia High prices for media goods, low incomes, cheap digital technologies Retail price of a CD or DVD, 5 to 10 times higher than in the US or Europe Tiny and underdeveloped legal media markets, low prices Domestic companies compete for local audiences, consumers Failure of antipiracy education, part of daily media practices Industry lobbies successful at changing laws, unsuccessful implementation Music pirates, transnational smugglers & legal industry competing with free Argues that efforts to enforce copyright law have largely failed

Conclusion
Much higher in developing states Mass production of counterfeit products, lack of government intervention Competing with a market that can provide their products for free Taking control of the internet vs. right to information Need to embrace the price competition Socially unacceptable, legal - graduated response, influence consumer habits Collaboration of government authorities and different business sectors Piracy led cultural destruction - part of the problem, ways to bring about a change in the consumer behavior need to be taken into consideration

A lot of people think its to pay for music,

silly
free
11

when it's so easy to get it for