Guest blog: The Digital Economy Act Conference: online evolution and digital rights

Guest blogger Trefor Davies is co-founder and chief technology officer of communications provider Timico. Check out his own blog, over at Trefor.net, for opinion on everything broadband related.

The Digital Economy Act conference in London on Monday was mostly attended by representatives of rights holders (RHs). I felt somewhat in the lions den. These guys are full timers living and breathing Copyright Law and the Digital Economy Act. I am the CTO of an ISP who has gradually taken an interest in this issue, partly as a result of being on the council of Trade Association ISPA and partly out of general outrage at how the whole law making process was rushed through.

My moods can swing quite noticeably when talking to the RH community. On the one hand I sometimes sympathise with them. Their business is changing. People don’t like change. They are uncomfortable with the unknown. On the other hand this happens all the time to people in all walks of life.

The broadband business for example has long since become commoditized and ISPs have had to become creative to stay around. Some have been giving away free broadband bundled with other services. Some provide a business service wrap that allows them to charge higher prices that keep them in the game. Online back-up, anti virus, free mail accounts, free web hosting, TV packages, dinners at the Ritz all get thrown in.

The point is as the average price of broadband has been coming down the industry has had to evolve. Nothing new there. Visitors to Broadband Genie are doing so precisely because they are shopping around for the best value they can get.

So when I think of the discussion at the DEAct conference I do sympathise but don’t really see that the creative industries are doing their best to adjust to survive. Maybe they are but I can’t see it. Maybe they are too entrenched in a business model that has kept them fat and happy for two generations or more.

I can’t tell them how to evolve. Online sales of music are actually growing. The BPI suggests that reducing copyright infringement would lead to higher growth. It is a guess. Would sales grow a lot faster if music was sold at a different price point? Perhaps the music industry isn’t willing to take the risk. The DEAct is effectively a stick disguised as an educational process. Normally with sticks come carrots. Where is the carrot?

Are RHs taking carrot-like measures to remove the incentive to indulge in file sharing? The release window, for example, means movies and albums are often available in the USA months before Europe. The only way for fans to access this content is sometimes only by “unlawful” means even though they would be happy to pay for the product and may well do so in any case once “legally” available.

Harmonisation of release windows has been discussed but has received push back from the likes of the cinema industry which thinks it would see it’s own market disappear – people might not go to the cinema if they could buy a movie online. Is the day of the cinema over? I doubt it. People go there because the experience is much better than on a small screen in the living room and you can leave the sweet wrappers on the floor without having to do the tidying up.

Ultimately whilst I sympathise with RHs I believe that what we are looking at is an industry that is facing huge change. The DEAct feels like part of a death struggle – stand back or you could get hurt. ISPs are caught in the middle because they are easy targets.

I don’t think the Act will make any difference to the ultimate result which is the way we consume and pay for Intellectual Property is changing. RH industries are not going to die but I’m guessing they will probably look very different in five years time.

PS Dinner at the Ritz? I made that bit up. I was being creative with my broadband packages. It sounds a bit like a free flight to New York with every packet of crisps – commercially non viable...

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