Policy Exchange, a leading right-of-centre think tank, is holding a lunchtime panel debate to discuss 'anti-piracy legislation'. Unusually, the event will question the view that Government and ISPs must crack down on filesharers and, also, is open to the public. The panel will feature Jim Killock (Open Rights Group's Executive Director), Cory Doctorow (author and activist), John Whittingdale MP (Chair of the DCMS Select Committee) and Andrew Hall (Senior Vice-President, NBC Universal International).
Please come along if you're in the area or can make it along so we can be sure of balance audience. Here's the event's blurb and details to get your name on the list:
Pirate copies and illegal downloads have been eroding the profits of some of our biggest creative industries for years. The government is keen to wade in with anti-piracy legislation. Is this a necessary response to a form of organised crime? Is it tough enough? Or are we trying to reign in digital progress, heedless of the fact that technology will keep shifting and hackers will find new ways of squeezing through the legislative gaps? Is it right to use Internet service Providers as policemen? And perhaps more fundamentally, is piracy the real issue? Do we really need to bail-out our creative industries - or do they simply need to adapt to the new world?
What: 'Piracy: do we need to rescue our creative industries?' Where: Ideas Space, Policy Exchange, Clutha House, 10 Storey's Gate London, England SW1P 3AY. Get Directions. When: 1300, Tuesday February 24 2009 How: RSVP to events[AT]policyexchange.org.uk
The Open Rights Group : Blog Archive » ORG and Cory to debate NBC …:
Feb 16, 2009 at 06:15 PM
[...] Original post by Michael Holloway [...]
They Reap what they Sow!:
Feb 16, 2009 at 06:44 PM
If Content Providers & Media Outlets continue NOT providing Proper Media Outlets on the WWW to Purchase these Items then what do they expect!
Provide proper Media Outlets & TRUST people MORE in the same manner as when "BUYING" (note not limited licenses!) CD/DVDs from Outlets & their Customer Base will Rise!
"This will not stamp out Pirates determined to break the Rules" (it never has & never will!), but that is why we have Laws & Police to Enforce them!
rich:
Feb 18, 2009 at 12:07 AM
"Pirate copies and illegal downloads have been eroding the profits of some of our biggest creative industries for years." - seems a bit of a leap to begin with!
Taliesin Nuin:
Feb 18, 2009 at 10:08 PM
On a separate issue, will this event be recorded at all, or have minutes taken? It would be very interesting for those of us unable to make it to watch / listen / read.
The Open Rights Group : Blog Archive » Event - Doctorow and Stross: Resisting the all-seeing eye:
Mar 27, 2009 at 12:48 PM
[...] an intro to one of our speakers, here’s Cory Doctorow at a recent Policy Exchange event, discussing collateral damage to digital rights caused by the cold war between the content [...]
Taliesin Nuin:
Feb 18, 2009 at 10:06 PM
Most of the people in my social circles (which span several EU countries as well as the US and an age demographic from 22years upwards) pirate media as a substitute for purchasing it. The only actual identifiable demographic in my social network that generally does not do this is older people, who either tend not to have broadband or simply lack expertise in using it. It's possible that I am living in an /extreme/ statistical blip, but I think if anyone wishes to convince me that piracy does not adversely affect sales of media, they're going to have to quote some pretty reliable statistics.
Regarding the currently in vogue justification for piracy which is that the media isn't sold in a desired format, that is (a) demonstrably not true for much current music and PDFs which are nonetheless heavily pirated and (b) not much of a rationalisation in the case of movies and music in which the pirated media originated in a traditional physical medium demonstrating that it is perfectly possible to rip a track or a DVD. Unless the argument is that people are technically sophisticated enough to torrent a movie but that ripping it to the desired format from disc is an insurmountable barrier, then the argument that piracy results from the suppliers not selling it in the desired format seems very flawed to me.