Opinion: File-sharing: the need for a cultural shift and a long term perspective

Last week the Dutch Parliamentary working group on copyright issued its final report. The main recommendation in the report was to make downloading from an illegal source a criminal offence in the Netherlands. Up until now, downloading from an illegal source is covered by the homecopying exception in the Netherlands. This means that while uploading is a violation of copyright, downloading is not. What the parliamentary working group wants to establish by changing the law is a ‘cultural shift’ in the attitude towards illegal file-sharing.

Why is this cultural shift necessary? Well, since downloading in the Netherlands is more or less ‘legal’, consumers get the impression that (digital) content is free. Why pay for a movie on DVD when you can get a perfectly good copy from the Pirate Bay for free? Of course, getting a free copy from the Pirate Bay is the most logical and economic choice for consumers.

Furthermore, the government sponsored ‘Ups and Downs’ study seems to suggest that file-sharing is actually beneficial to society, since it enables more people to access content. While this maybe true in the short term, the long-term effect of downloading is likely more detrimental to society than beneficial. By denying (professional) content creators any means of monetizing their intellectual and creative achievements they will most likely stop to create professionally produced content, leaving us with a lot of user generated drivel. Unfortunately, the only take away from these studies for consumers is that downloading stuff for free is actually good for the economy and society.

So we have a situation wherein consumers, especially younger consumers, don’t feel that downloading is a bad thing (it is legal), rather they feel it is a good thing, if not their right as a consumer. The Dutch government is not inclined to do anything about this situation and looks to the market to remedy the problem of file-sharing.

In the marketplace however, the debate about file-sharing focuses primarily on the short term economic aspects of copyright (i.e. current losses). The debate goes as follows: the entertainment industry claims that it suffers huge losses due to piracy, while the file-sharing community claims that these losses are greatly exaggerated and the entertainment industry abuses copyright to protect their ageing business models. Both of these claims have some merit I think. I think that the entertainment industry indeed suffers losses due to piracy, but I also think they are too slow in changing to meet the demands of an online environment.

Whatever may be the case, the economic arguments are very hard to prove with empirical data. Both the entertainment industry and the file-sharing community regularly publish studies about the effects of downloading on the creative sector. Moreover, they always blast each others studies, calling them biased or simply false.

In my opinion it is less interesting to quarrel about the extent of current losses, but it is far more interesting to take a long term view. Many file-sharers are willing to pay a reasonable price for readily accessible content. But more and more there is an attitude that content is there for the taking: it is available and it is legal to get it for free. This attitude towards content poses a threat to the professional content sector in the future, especially those parts that are dependent on big investments (movies, software, games) that need to be recouped. Moreover, they pose a threat to authors outside of the entertainment industry, because the ‘free for all’ attitude towards music and movies extends to all forms of content. The pirates of the Amazon application (which linked people browsing Amazon’s catalogue to free copies on Bittorrent) for instance, is a sign that a lack of respect for content can seriously undermine innovative and fair business models.

For me, ultimately, the download debate is not just about the money and the future of the entertainment sector, it is about ethics: you don’t steal other people’s creations, you don’t ‘share’ anything that is not yours without permission, and you definitely don’t profit of other people’s work. That being said, the entertainment industry should realize that copyright is indeed a right and not a given. By using copyright to maximize profits and shield ageing business models the entertainment industry risks losing what little support they have with the public.

If we want to avoid a future without respect for authors and a lack of (professionally produced) content, a change in the attitude of consumers is necessary. A ban on downloading from an illegal source is an important step in this process, just as the creation of new business models by the entertainment industry is.

Therefore, the ideas put forward by the parliamentary working group on copyright (criminalize downloading, but only after the entertainment industry embraces innovation) are refreshing. Their ideas strike a fair balance between the rights of the consumer and the interests of the copyright holders for the long term and go beyond the current discussion about the damage to the entertainment sector. Furthermore, they stress the need for a cooperation between all stakeholders (consumers, copyrightholders, and the government).

Now let’s hope all stakeholders will actually start making work of the future of copyright!