It seems only a month or so ago when we were talking about the battle in the European Union to stop an EU-wide three strikes law. Apparently, an EU commissioner now wants an overhaul on downloading related regulations saying that current access rules to works makes piracy “sexy”.
While we are not really sure what all of the commissioners intentions are, apparently some of those intentions are to change the regulations on how European citizens access digital content.
“It will therefore be my key priority to work… on a simple, consumer friendly legal framework for accessing digital content in Europe’s single market, while ensuring at the same time fair remuneration of creators,” she told a seminar on Thursday (July 9).
More from Billboard:
“Internet piracy appears to become more and more sexy, in particular for the digital natives,” she said, quoting a survey that showed that 60% of people aged 16-24 downloaded audiovisual contented in the past months without paying.
“Growing Internet piracy is a vote of no-confidence in existing business models and legal solutions. It should a wake-up call for policy makers,” she told the seminar, organized by the Lisbon Council thinktank.
It’s an extremely curious thing to say that “internet piracy” is “growing” considering a recent survey mentioned in The Guardian pointed out the exact opposite:
The survey of 1,000 fans also shows that many14 to 18 year olds are now streaming music regularly online using services such as YouTube and Spotify.
At the same time less than a third of teenagers are now illegally downloading music, the survey suggests. In January this year 26% of 14 to 18 year olds admitted filesharing at least once a month compared with 42% in December 2007.
The research revealed that many teenagers (65%) are streaming music regularly, with more 14 to 18 year olds (31%) listening to streamed music on their computer every day compared with music fans overall (18%).
The picture may be more complex than a simple shift from filesharing to streaming, with people sharing music in new ways such as via bluetooth technology, on blogs, and through copying, also known as ripping content from friends’ MP3 devices.
Still, this wouldn’t be the first time there’s been movement in the European Union to make amends between big record companies and average music fans. A Green Party MEP said that the best way to go about the business of file-sharing is to legalize file-sharing and just issuing a flat rate on ISPs.
Access has been quite a problem for a long time. Many ISPs in Europe have been trying to make groundbreaking deals with record labels so they can sell music as well, but such deals seem to have been few and far between. Meanwhile, the copyright industry has been pressuring ISPs to simply punish music fans for copyright infringement through three-strikes legislation. Realistically speaking, how many major record label backed authorized digital stores have started up compared to the number of BitTorrent sites starting up?
No doubt we’ll hear much more of what is actually being planned as time goes on, but it seems that file-sharing related issues is going to be, once again, on the agenda.
[Hat Tip: Open Rights Group - 1 and 2]
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like it or not, file sharing is part of the internet !
unless the internet dies o!0 WTF file sharing won’t