Copyright catch-up is a costly game
MOVIE, music and television lovers will be denied great pieces of art if piracy and illegal downloading grows unchecked, according to one of the country’s top media executives.
Delivering the keynote address at the Australian International Movie Convention on the Gold Coast yesterday, News Limited chief executive Kim Williams said digital piracy was affecting the financial viability of film, TV and music.
Mr Williams speculated on what today’s artistic landscape would look like if Dickens and Shakespeare had faced digital piracy in the same epidemic proportions as we do today.
‘‘Imagine the great works that are not being produced because digital bandits are creating virtual pirate Globe Theatres and virtual literary magazines and making off with possibly 65 per cent of the profits,’’ Mr Williams said.
‘‘If you think I’m exaggerating, think again, because the copyright bandits of the paper age of Shakespeare and Dickens had nothing on the copyright kleptomaniacs of the digital age.’’
He said illegal downloads made offenders less likely to buy DVDs, download pay-perview programming, buy content from iTunes or go to the movies.
Mr Williams quoted this year’s report for the Intellectual Property Awareness Foundation which revealed more than 37 per cent of Australians admitted to having downloaded material illegally and about 60 per cent of persistent offenders downloaded illegally at least once a week.
‘‘That’s money out of all our pockets. And culture taken from all our lives. And cultural development taken from our nation.’’
Mr Williams compared illegal downloading to the looters in last year’s London riots and said consumers had to take responsibility for their own actions but copyright laws had to change to reflect the shift from ‘‘analogue to digital’’.
‘‘What the Australian production and distribution industry needs are renovated legal underpinnings that acknowledge the primary right of copyright owners to exploit their work in the certain knowledge that theft will be prevented and punished equally,’’ he said.
‘ ‘ Wi t h o u t t h a t c o r e c o mmerc i a l underpinning the outlook for our industry – the digital entertainment industry – is grim indeed.’’
He also said internet service providers had to shoulder some responsibility for tackling repeat offenders who used their networks, by threatening to slow down or stop downloading if illegal activities continued.