Filesharing and bilesharing: a 'three-strikes' rant

The UK Film Council and other luminaries of the creative industries have gone on the warpath about filesharing, calling for persistent sharers to be kicked off the internet.

According to the BBC, the coalition "wants the government to force internet service providers (ISPs) to disconnect users who ignore repeated warnings about sharing illegal content". So, basically a UK version of Sarkozy's beloved Hadopi/'three strikes' law, which was rejected by French parliamentarians but is coming back, zombie-style, for a second shot.

Here's a golden quote from the UKFC chief in the Beeb's piece:

Mr Woodward said: "The growing threat of illegal P2P (peer to peer) file-sharing threatens [the creative industries], as films go unmade, DVD sales deteriorate and jobs are lost in production and distribution of content."

Why golden? Look back to this UKFC statement, also quoting Woodward and released… ooh, two weeks ago. Here he is on the real reason for the drop in film production:

This is all about timing and tax breaks. As regards the big US studio financed films what we are seeing is the debris from last year's perfect storm when pictures weren't being greenlit because of US strike action and there were $2 to £1. So a production dip at the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009 isn't a surprise. Fortunately the 2nd half of this year is looking good and we fully expect a serious bounce back based on enthusiasm for the film tax credit and the turnaround in the £/$ exchange rate.

What I'm much more concerned about right now is the drop in UK independent production starts - by which I mean co-productions. And this is largely a function of the one flaw in the otherwise excellent film tax credit which disincentivises co-productions by focusing tax relief only on production spend made on the ground in the UK.

So, nothing to do with piracy then! It's all down to tax credits and overseas strikes. But things are looking up, so no worries.

Of course, there's more to pick on in Woodward's BBC quote. DVD sales are deteriorating… well, yes. They would, having been superseded by Blu-ray and, more pertinently, downloads – legal as well as otherwise. Similarly, jobs are being lost in the "distribution of content" because the entire distribution model has changed. This is how things work in 2009.

The ISP Association (ISPA) has naturally told the creative coalition where it can stick its three strikes, using the opportunity to point out the hypocrisy in the content industry's call:

Internet companies remain extremely frustrated by the ongoing difficulties in securing licensing that is needed to offer consumers legal alternatives through new models of online content distribution. It is our view that legislation on enforcement should only be introduced on the condition that the rights holder industry commits to significant licensing reform.

Quite.

What about the artists themselves? Let's ask Chuck D, who I had the pleasure of interviewing about DRM back in 2006. He was the subject of the 60-second interview in this morning's Metro freesheet, and was asked about Public Enemy's new tour of It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back. Here's what he had to say:

It amazed me that a lot of people who have gravitated to the album weren't even born when it was recorded. But it's YouTube and iLike and MySpace, and file-sharing, which highlighted the existence of it. So I can't shoot down file-sharing, as it's benefited us tremendously.

But of course, Chuck D is a man who's actually playing around with new music models like Sellaband, rather than whingeing about how the jalopy has fallen out of fashion, so the creative industry would clearly never go to him as a mouthpiece.

Anyway, back to the legality stuff. Last week's European Parliament vote on the Telecoms Package was a fascinating affair. Some media outlets reported that the EP had rejected the Telecoms Package because of its heavily-contested net neutrality provision. What actually happened was the Parliament voted for the Package, knowing full well that the Council of Telecoms Ministers, which needs to ratify the bundle of laws before they can be enacted, hates the idea of net neutrality and will probably sink the package in its entirety.

Why did they vote it through anyway then? Who knows – the parliamentarians are at the end of their terms, as elections loom, and maybe they wanted a last act of defiance. Or maybe they just want to leave it for the next lot. Anyway, the formidable telecoms commissioner, Viviane Reding, still seems to think the Telecoms Package might be passed. Here she is, speaking yesterday in Prague:

From the governance point of view "Net Neutrality" is essential. New network management techniques allow traffic prioritisation. These tools may be used to guarantee good quality of service but may also be used for anti-competitive practices. The Commission has taken steps to empower national regulators to prevent such unfair abuse to the detriment of consumers. These measures are at the heart of the new telecoms regulatory package for which adoption is imminent thanks also to the Czech Presidency that is sparing no effort to make it happen!

Go Viv! Let's hope her wish comes true, but I have my doubts.

I should mention that I am myself a musician – I have a rock band called Guns To Caviar (plug plug) – and so I really want to see where the new-music-business-model thing goes. For now, that entails giving away our music for free as a promotional thing, but in the future it'd sure be nice to make some money off it!

I understand why the industry is worried, but I'm also extremely frustrated at how intent the industry seems on holding itself back at every opportunity. It won't work – we're past that point now. We need a new way to work it out.

On a final note, I'll refer you to this excellent post from the admirably acerbic analyst Dean Bubley, who has a fairly comprehensive and entirely sensible list of reasons why three-strikes would never, ever work. And to this Institute of European Media Law (EML) study, which shows how a new approach to pricing could bring rewards for everyone.