Is the internet killing copyright?

• Jonathan Crossfield
• 23 October 2008
• Page 1 of 3 : single page

February 2007. Amazon began emailing customers to announce a new book from Seth Godin. Godin is a bestselling author, so new releases are big news to his fans. The problem was, Godin had published Everyone is an Expert as a free ebook available from his website, not in hard copy.

Godin tried to clarify the situation on his blog. “I didn't authorise this book to be published, I have no idea who the publisher is and I certainly didn't ask Amazon to email anyone,” he said.

September 2007. At a concert in Sydney, Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor stopped between songs to recommend to audience members how they should respond to the high price of music in Australia:

“Steal it. Steal away. Steal, steal and steal some more and give it to all your friends and keep on stealing. Because one way or another, these motherf___ers will get it through their head that they're ripping people off and that's not right.”

Strong stuff. Of course, Reznor wasn’t promoting shoplifting or piracy. He was encouraging illegally sharing files through the BitTorrent peer-to-peer network.

The internet has created the greatest information database and distribution system society has ever known. But this power comes at a cost. Putting intellectual property on the web makes it accessible to anyone with a laptop and a phone line. Yet the ability to copy, duplicate, reuse and redistribute this content without our knowledge makes the internet the biggest ever threat to current business practices and the protection of copyright.

The internet is changing how society communicates, compiles, stores and shares information. The development of new consumer attitudes – either knowingly or unwittingly infringing copyright in everyday online activity – has pitted businesses against their own consumers. Can current business models survive in this new marketplace?

Consumers, not pirates

Godin admits he was partially at fault for the unauthorised publication of his book. He published it under a creative commons licence to detail the copyright restrictions he wanted to impose on his work. Godin’s goal was for the e-book to be shared freely online. However, he failed to prohibit unauthorised commercial publication. Soon after Godin first announced his displeasure, the publisher responded to his concerns by adding a large disclaimer to the front cover of the printed version to declare the original source of the material.

Godin was lucky the publisher cooperated. Every day, intellectual property theft occurs on the web in large and small ways. Right-clicking an image for reuse on your website can infringe on someone else’s commercial rights. Copying and redistributing content without correct attribution is also a major concern for many webmasters. Plagiarism is more prevalent now than ever before.

This is not an article about backyard pirate DVD operations churning out cheap knock-offs. It also isn’t about the penalties consumers face or the legal debates regarding whether ISPs, businesses or consumers should be responsible for illegal downloading. These separate issues can detract from the core issue at stake for business. This article is about how modern consumers are choosing to access content online, often copying and redistributing among their peers, and what this means for the future of online business.

The battle for copyright

The debate about online copyright infringement usually surrounds CDs and films. However, the issues that surround peer-to-peer file sharing point to societal behaviours and beliefs that have ramifications across all online media.

“There seems to be an expectation that copyright law will change rather than businesses adapting into the new environment and using copyright in new ways,” says Ian MacDonald, senior legal officer for the Australian Copyright Council. He sees online copyright infringement as a problem for business, rather than lawyers. “I really don’t think they’re going to wind back copyright in principle as a law, just because people are infringing. If anything, laws have become more stringent rather than being relaxed.”

This places the responsibility for dealing with the issue of copyright infringement squarely with businesses and their financial models. Fight consumers in the courts or adapt. 

“In Australia, one of the influences on copyright infringement is music pricing,” says Alex Malik, a PhD student at the University of Technology, Sydney who has studied the shift in online consumer behaviour. "There is no justification for iTunes' $1.69 single download price compared to a US price of $0.99 or less when the Australian currency is virtually at parity. With new technology, the cost of producing content has also fallen dramatically in recent years. Consumers are not stupid – they are waiting for at least some of these cost savings to be passed onto them.”

In other words, Reznor’s controversial endorsement of illegal downloading reflects genuine consumer concerns. But is price the only issue? Are other factors contributing to consumer behaviour?

Sabiene Heindl represents Music Industry Piracy Investigations, an organisation that helps the Australian music industry enforce its intellectual property rights and is heavily involved in educating consumers on the realities of illegal downloading.

“All the research we’ve done suggests that kids now think music is free. Even if music was 10c a track or if they were asked to pay $10 a month, they still have an issue because they’re paying.”

This perception that online content is free, or should be, includes all forms of digitised information. The challenge for business is to prosper in an environment where content can be copied easily and distributed without the owner’s consent.

Many businesses argue that the existing financial models are worth fighting for and that consumers need to be educated against perceiving content as free.

“Ultimately it comes down to a respect for creativity,” explains Heindl. “If people have created music, they don’t want it to be distributed by third parties on the internet without their consent. Their wishes need to be respected. In many ways that is the backbone of our society.”

Others advocate change. “This issue is not about piracy: this is about the audience getting whatever it wants by any means necessary,” says Mark Pesce, a writer, researcher and lecturer at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, specialising in future technology.

“Today’s consumers have the tools, they have the intent and they have the power of numbers. It is foolish to insist the future will be substantially different from the world we see today. We cannot change the behaviour of the audience. Instead, we must all adapt to things as they are.”