Internet Opens Profit Windows for Hollywood, Pirates
The movie industry is starting to tap the “mind- boggling” array of business opportunities online, even as it battles piracy worldwide, said MPAA Chmn. Dan Glickman. Speaking Mon. at the UBS media conference in N.Y., Glickman urged telecoms, ISPs and electronics makers to help the MPAA combat intellectual property (IP) violations. “Mutual success requires cooperation,” he said.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
MPAA members have “enhanced” their anti-piracy units and those developing Internet applications, Glickman said: “Many of the new frontiers are very different than anything the industry has ever faced and studios are facing them aggressively.”
“New distribution platforms present new opportunities,” Glickman said: “Millions watch our product, many more millions currently do not… Our job is to try to find new ways” to deliver content. Deals with BitTorrent, Guba and other P2P file sharing sites could help the industry replace profits lost to piracy and copyright infringement, he said. The MPAA once saw BitTorrent “as a pariah or the devil,” he said, but now that several studios have struck deals with the company (WID Nov 30 p7), it could create “a valuable service.”
Most movie industry ad dollars still go for TV spots, but “we are looking at the whole issue of how one uses the Internet to target your audience more effectively,” Glickman said. Hollywood is reaching out online in other ways, too: MyMovieMuse.com polls users about their “movie-going and watching experience.”
The “plethora of new technologies” that makes movies more accessible to more viewers breeds piracy, Glickman said. The MPAA is “working closely” with the U.S. Trade Representative to “ensure” new trade agreements address intellectual property rights, he said. To “root out, find and enforce IP violations” that cost the industry $6.1 billion in 2005, “it’s clear that we must use all available pressure points to ensure that the value of our works is not undermined,” he said.
An MPAA policy of legal action and criminal enforcement against copyright infringers has been “helpful,” but it’s time to beef up other efforts, Glickman said. The group will start pushing education by “partnering with respected educational organizations to develop curriculum” and work with technology officers on college campuses where “about 1/2 of all domestic piracy” is committed.
“There is a role for government” in piracy enforcement, Glickman said: “It is not a particularly divisive issue… Most members of Congress understand the economic threat and the negative consequences of piracy.” -- Alexis Fabbri
UBS Conference Notebook…
As they race to put more programming online, TV programmers will take care not to alienate cable operators -- and the fat monthly affiliate fees they pay, Fox Interactive Media Vp Jonathan Cody said on a panel about broadband video’s future at the UBS media conference. “We certainly want to try new things, but we're not looking to completely bypass a 25-year partnership with cable operators just because we think we can,” Cody said: “Those [distributors] that pay us what cable and satellite do -- we're not interested in cutting them out.” That gives cable operators a huge leg up in getting online video deals, UBS analyst Aryeh Bourkoff said: “That puts Comcast at the table to play in that game.” Cable operators want to keep the role of entertainment aggregators as video programming moves online, he said. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) needs updating to foster growth in online video distribution, Bolt Media CEO Aaron Cohen said: “What we have here is a legal system that is not allowing the business models to work as well as we would like them to. The DMCA protects me very well… but the system is very badly broken.” Fixing the DMCA shouldn’t be a priority, Cody said. “We have to be realistic about where we are on the legal front,” he said: “We really need to focus much more on the technology side and the business side. There’s no reason for us not to be able to sit at tables and figure out our business and technology solutions.” Fox wants better technology to use in identifying and protecting its content on others’ websites, Cody said. Beyond that, business relationships with online distributors are needed to fill demand for Fox content on multiple platforms, he said: “When you see companies build a business on the back of your content… We clearly come at the problem a little bit with a raised eyebrow.” Advertisers are wary of placing video ads on sites with copyright infringing content, said Mark Karlan, a senior media planner for Tangible Media, a company that buys online video ads for marketers. Advertisers are “very hesitant to buy against sites and places where questionable copyrighted material may or may not be present,” he said.