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<p>-----------------------------------------------------------</p><div class="gmail_quote">J@pan Inc Newsletter<br>
The '<span>JIN</span>' J@pan Inc Newsletter<br>
A weekly opinion piece on social, economic and political trends in Japan.<br>
Issue No. 513 Thursday August 13, 2009, Tokyo<br>
<br>
I keep hearing the same questions over and over again but I still<br>
don’t hear any answers. Or I hear a lot of things that could be<br>
answers but I don’t see a whole lot of evidence of anything being put<br>
into practice. <br><br>In Sweden the pirates have rallied, and the people have<br>
joined in behind them in a kind geeky, self-centered, modern-day<br>
version of Robin Hood and his base of co-conspirators. Meanwhile<br>
Bescherming Rechten Entertainment Industrie Nederland (or BREIN for<br>
short), the Netherlands leading copyright lobby group, has taken on a<br>
kind of Sheriff of Nottingham role in this misplaced battle of<br>
“morals.” At the end of last month, the Pirate Bay was hit with an<br>
injunction stating the site couldn’t be operated in the Netherlands.<br>
If they did not comply, the owners -- Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde and<br>
Gottfrid Svartholm Warg – would have to pay up to $42,000 a day with a<br>
maximum fine of $4.2 million in total. <br><br>(Note: I just checked - <a href="http://thepiratebay.org/" target="_blank">thepiratebay.org</a> is still up and running. The trio had<br>10 days to take it down so I suppose those fines are ticking away now) <br>
<br>Complicating matters, Global Gaming Factory X, the operator of a string <br>of gaming centers in Sweden, has put in a bid to buy The Pirate Bay for <br>$8 million -- a bid which Europe’s major recorded music group, the <br>
International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), has moved <br>to block. GGF has plans to make Pirate Bay a service for fee-paying <br>subscribers.<br>
<br>
The Pirate Bay saga is probably the most public of the copyright<br>
battles being fought and whether it is won or lost, in the end, it<br>
doesn’t really matter. While The Pirate Bay has, for some, become a<br>
kind of symbol of sticking it to The Man, it is more symbolic of a<br>
distribution system that changed years ago and more importantly, a<br>
mentality that began to change 15 years ago when newspapers decided <br>to give away their content for free. Now, a whole generation of avid Internet<br>
users expect news, entertainment and applications for free and simply<br>
will not pay for it.<br>
<br>
So the recording industry is doomed to failure. The recording<br>
companies will fight to the bitter end with organizations such the<br>
IFPI filing lawsuits and attacking the many new heads of the Hydra but<br>
the problem now lies with the attitudes of the general consumer. If<br>
they expect digital content for free, then they will demand they get it<br>
for free, if not vocally, then by finding the next peer-to-peer site.<br>
Newspapers in their current form are doomed. The movie theaters are<br>
still pulling in crowds but DVD sales continue to drop.<br>
<br>
Advocates of Web 2.0 or 3.0 or wherever we are, may sing the praises <br>of new information dissemination sites such as Twitter and Facebook. <br>But where are the new sites which bring money to those creating<br>
the content? Twitter hardly makes any money, (well it’ll make money if<br>
it’s sold). <br><br>I believe that recorded information, aka information able to be copied <br>digitally, cannot be used as the basis of a revenue model from now on. <br>The business models need to shift because the consumer base has <br>
shifted. So my question remains: where are the answers? The Sheriffs <br>of Nottingham believe their lawyers have the answers but I think pirates, <br>or more accurately, their black market customers are going to continue <br>
to win this war. So what's next? I want answers! And I want them before: <br><br>a) Journalists become something that kids only read about in <br>history books and describe to their friends as these people that were <br>
"kind of like bloggers;"<br>
<br>b) Movies have their budgets reduced to a point where the summer <br>Hollywood movies all look like The Blair Witch Project and we have to <br>watch them all on our phones;<br>
<br>c) The day the music dies;<br><br>Well, maybe the music will never die but I think that musicians now have a<br>great chance to reach a much larger audience than ever before but no<br>business model has been developed where they will really capitalize. Someone<br>
has to hand over money at some point for this to happen. So, how will this <br>occur? Standing at the gates of Fox selling tickets to information, isn't<br>going to work. So what will?<br><br>Michael Condon<br>
Editor-in-chief<br>
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