Sam Varghese
Thursday, 04 February 2010 14:45
IT Policy -
Government Tech Policy
Page 1 of 2
While iiNet chief executive Michael Malone gets a good night's rest, probably the first such night he's had since the case filed by the film industry kicked off, it is time for the doyens of the film industry to reflect on what this verdict means for them.
In what is a quintessentially Australian verdict today, Federal Court Judge Dennis Cowdroy delivered a win for commonsense, by ruling that an ISP cannot be held responsible for what its users download. Much in the same way that a maker of blank DVDs cannot be held guilty if objectionable material is found on the media.
It is time for the industry to think whether it is worthwhile going after individuals who download copied films over the internet and trying to instill fear in people, or whether it should seriously consider coming into the 21st century and continue making money.
The tactic of using emotional terms like "pirate" and "theft" has not worked in the past and will be even less useful in the future.
Ever since the digitisation of content - music, text and media - began, it has been apparent to anyone with the intelligence quotient of the common cockroach that the profit margins common in the 70s and 80s could not be sustained and that owners of content would have to go with the trend of increasing volume sales if they ever wanted to maintain anything like the profits which they enjoyed during those halcyon days.
The music industry - EMI and Sony, to name just two with which I am familiar - tried its level best with all kinds of copyright schemes but they came to naught. A few Pyrrhic victories were recorded over individuals, mostly in the US, a country where the fear factor rules everyday life, but that did not yield the expected returns. All it resulted in was a terrible image for an industry which already was considered a cross between Rasputin and Dracula.
