Copyright Business

The other side of the copyright story - the so-called ‘new business models’ - receives relatively little attention at a policy level. Moreover, there is little independent research on the real nature of the entertainment industry’s financial problems. The only statistics we have to go on are the music industry ones, and the music industry has a vested interest in those statistics. From a policy perspective, this means that decisions are being made using inadequate information.

However, when we read the business pages we do get insights into other problems in the copyright industries, which may be the real underlying reason for their woes. The case of EMI is a classic example, where the company got into trouble by overburdening itself with a massive debt. In order to determine the forward direction, one would first need to undestand the impact of the debt, how this might have reduced funds available for investment in new systems, and then one could position the impact of unauthorised downloading.

In this section, I will be logging information about the business of copyright. The idea is to begin to get a feel for the financial issues of the copyright industries and how to link them to policy decisions. Thus, it may seem a bit disjointed and sketchy, but the idea is to provide threads for further investigation and to see where it leads.

My feeling is that what policy-makers should not be asking is ‘how big a problem is the downloading of copyrighted content?’ but rather, ‘what are the real problems in the copyright business?’. and not 'how can we protect copyrights?' but rather 'how can we achieve revenues for the copyright industries in the online environment?'

Will Spotify build the copyright star?

Monica Horten

Published on 23 February 2013

Oh-o-oh, no more re-winds as the music industry begins a love-affair with streaming.

2012 was a tipping point for the music industry, when streamed music from services such as Spotify, finally demonstrated their economic potential. Indeed, the latest figures released by the British recorded music industry, otherwise known as the BPI, suggest that it is finally getting to grips with an Internet business model. So what does this mean for the future of copyright policy? Here are a few comments on the numbers, plus a review of Spotify for policy-makers.

Universal Music caught in its own trap

Monica Horten

Published on 27 December 2012

London and Paris offices affected, as well as New York. And some curious downloading going on in the European Parliament.

Universal Music, which lobbies for enforcement measures against peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing, has been caught with its proverbial pants down. Statistics on Bit Torrent usage, made available by the anti-piracy surveillance company, ScanEye, and uncovered by TorrentFreak, reveal the possibility of P2P downloading within the offices of copyright industry companies. For example, the data links certain downloaded files of copyrighted television programmes to the London and Paris offices of Universal Music.

‘Bleeding’ Disney forks out $4 billion for Star Wars

Monica Horten

Published on 31 October 2012

When petitioning politicians for tougher enforcement measures, Disney Corporation will assure them that the motion picture industry is bleeding to death. Internet piracy, they will say, must be stopped in order to prevent the strangulation of the creative industries and protect the jobs of those who work in them. Hollywood is pretty good at foretelling its own death when there is a politician in the frame.

So it is curious that Hollywood’s greatest corporation can now find a whopping $4 billion to buy out one of its competitors. For Disney Corporation is indeed

About Iptegrity.com

Iptegrity.com is the website of Dr Monica Horten, independent policy writer and Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics & Political Science. She was shortlisted for The Guardian Open Internet Poll 2012. Iptegrity offers expert insights into Internet policy. Iptegrity is read by lawyers, academics, policy-makers and citizens, and cited in the media. Please acknowledge Iptegrity when you cite or link. For more, see IP politics with integrity