According to a presentation by German anti-pirate outfit DigitRights
Solutions, copyright holders can earn substantially more money from
illicit downloads than from legal means (
PowerPoint in German).
The report, which was translated from German by
TorrentFreak,
noted that sending out direct requests for damages to alleged pirates,
with copyright holders generating approximately $140 per illegal download, compared to approximately $1 per legal purchase online.
Whilst aggressive copyright protection may be creating large windfalls for rights holders in Europe, Australian internet users are are
somewhat shielded from this kind of action. Most leading leading ISP's refuse to dentify
individual copyright infringers.
iiNet is currently in the
midst of ladmark court proceedings as they defending an ISP's right to keep the identity of
alleged copyright infringers private. If iiNet loses the court case it will open the gates for copyright holders to send out individual infringement notices.
Some ISP's such as Exetel
have already agreed to identify individuals and send out copyright
notices to their users.
Copyright concerns continues to be front of mind for
many major content producers, especially in developing digital
economies such as China.
Whilst urging China to open their 'digital door' at the
World Media Conference News Corporation chief executive Rupert Murdoch has warned of the dangers of piracy:
"Chinese
media and entertainment companies have a remarkable opportunity to
expand their international influence and revenues." Said Mr Murdoch
"Piracy will make it difficult for them to generate the
profits at home that would fuel growth abroad".
Mr Murdoch also continued his vitriolic criticism of aggregators and bloggers.
"The Philistine phase of the digital age is almost over. The
aggregators and the plagiarists will soon have to pay a price for the
co-opting of our content," he said. "But if we do not take
advantage of the current movement toward paid-for content, it will be
the content creators, the people in this hall, who will pay the
ultimate price and the content kleptomaniacs will triumph."
