Digital Rights Agency – A Workable Solution or Just a Hope?
Published on 1 May 2009 at 3:59 pm.
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Filed under Misc, illegal file sharing, Digital rights.
Blog author: Nicolas Murfett
The problem of illegal file sharing has been around since the dawn of the internet. Traditionally the problem was limited to the select few with the technological resources to be able to do it. Then in 1999 Shawn Fanning created Napster. Since then there has been a dramatic rise in the perceived acceptability of sharing copyrighted material online. The BPI (British Phonographic Industry) suggests that illegal file sharing has in the last three years cost the British music industry alone over £1.1 billion in lost revenue. The answer as to how best to tackle illegal file sharing has eluded both government and the industry alike. It is unlikely that the Swedish court’s decision to send the team behind Pirate Bay to jail will offer a solution either.
In a fresh effort to stem the tide of copyright piracy online, the government’s recent ‘Digital Britain Interim Report’ (the Interim Report) introduced the concept of creating an industry run Digital Rights Agency (DRA). The purpose of such an agency would be two fold. First, it would seek to address the shift in the public’s perception as to the acceptability of online piracy. Second, it would work with the government and Internet service providers (ISPs) to introduce new codes of practice and enforcement measures designed to prevent and reduce online copyright infringement.
According to the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), in 2007 around a quarter of all internet users in the UK engaged in some form of online music piracy. A large proportion of internet users are simply no longer willing to pay for something that they have become accustomed to getting for free. The government’s proposed DRA would target the perception that it is somehow acceptable to engage in piracy online by re-educating the public as to the consequences of unlawful use of copyright material. The government hopes that by doing so the public will understand that the availability of future digital media depends on current creators and innovators believing that there is a value that can be extracted from placing their copyright material online. Exactly how the DRA will go about re-educating the public is not yet known.
The Interim Report also suggests that a DRA would need to work closely with the government to introduce new codes of practice and legislation that will complement existing copyright laws and thus create a more robust system of copyright protection and enforcement. The government’s recent ‘Copyright in a digital world – What role for a Digital Rights Agency’ report (the Copyright Report) acknowledged that in order for such a robust system to work in practice a DRA would need both the total support of ISPs and the affected industries. ISPs would need to be actively involved in the enforcement of any code of practice. One of the suggestions the Copyright Report makes is that ISPs issue warnings to repeat copyright infringers, informing them that their actions are illegal. Then, if these warnings are ignored, the ISPs would need to either restrict the network access of these repeat infringers or provide their personal details to the affected rights holders so that the rights owner could bring a civil action in copyright infringement against them. The danger with this suggested course of enforcement, as David Lammy the Intellectual Property Minister has said, is that it will focus on “teenagers in their bedrooms” and ignore the far greater problem of organised counterfeiting gangs. Furthermore, this whole system is entirely dependent on both the willingness of ISPs to notify infringers of the illegality of their actions and the affected rights holders actually enforcing their rights against these repeat infringers. Without this level of cooperation any DRA developed code of practice would be worthless.
The Copyright Report also suggests that copyright holders themselves can do a lot to help lower the amount of online copyright piracy by creating new and inexpensive ways in which consumers can access copyrighted material online. One need only look at the success of Apple’s iTunes music store, and more recently Spotify, to see the potential there is for new, inexpensive digital media offerings online.
The public’s comments on the suggestions contained within the Copyright Report and Interim Report formed the basis for the Digital Britain Summit on 17 April 2009 (the Summit). The results of the Summit, which was aimed at determining how best to equip Britain for a digital future, will be incorporated in the Final Digital Britain Report which is due out later this spring.
The creation of an industry led body that works closely with both ISPs and the government could prove to be an effective weapon in the fight against online copyright piracy. Because the effectiveness of a DRA is entirely dependent on the cooperation of numerous parties, it is unlikely that a DRA will see the light of day for some time. Notwithstanding this, if steps are taken to re-educate the public about the consequences of online piracy and new legal methods of accessing copyrighted material affordably are created, then there is some room for hope that the market for pirated material will hopefully be reduced.