A war on files
I’ve just got back from C&binet forum, a government organised conference bringing the creative industries together to discuss the challenges and opportunities outlined in this year’s Digital Britain report. It was by and large a worthwhile event, and as always much of the value was in meeting talented people from all corners of the creative industry. On the downside, the debate in the main hall focussed way too much on ways of preserving outdated business models in the face of web enabled copyright infringement and not enough on ideas and business models which exploit the new realities.
Lord Mandelson announced this morning after keeping us waiting for a suitably rock n roll period of time that the government’s bright idea to combat file sharing is to send letters on a three strikes basis. What then happens isn’t clear, but I can’t help feeling it won’t work. Clearly the government has to be seen to do something, but I can’t help feeling this will drive the behaviour underground via encryption. Yesterday I asked Sion Simon if the government has an appetite for a war on files alongside the clearly very effective one raging on drugs. It seems they have. To be fair the announcement did hint at help for businesses offering credible alternatives to illegal downloads, but in true New Labour style there didn’t seem to be any clarity over what that will be. More positive was a commitment to fixing the UK’s arcane copyright laws, making it easier for artists to clear rights for the production of new work. As David Lammy said yesterday in his well informed speech, quoting Picasso; “good artists borrow, great artists steal.” So we look forward to the possibility of legislation which will enable a legitimate future for sampling, mashups and other digitally driven forms of creativity.
Tags: c&binet, copyright, government, UK, web
