Media and tech firms team up to tackle piracy

Posted on 30 Sep 2008 at 16:31

Media and technology companies have joined forces to tackle piracy. Organisers of the 'Arts+Labs' group claim the union marks the first time technology companies and content creators have teamed up to fight piracy, rather than scrap it out in court.

In recent times, consumer advocates, technology companies, artists and distributors have been embroiled in legal battles, but now AT&T, Viacom, NBC, Cisco, Microsoft and the Songwriters Guild of America have opted to take a unified approach towards tackling piracy.

"I just like this approach a whole lot better," said Rick Carnes, president of the Songwriters Guild of America.

The global music industry loses around £6.9 billion a year to piracy, according to industry statistics. And according to Carnes, illegally downloaded songs outnumber legally downloaded ones, 20-to-1.

"For songwriters, it's a recipe for extinction," he said.

According to Motion Picture Association of America, the movie industry lost £1.3 billion worldwide to internet piracy in 2005; the most figures that the organisation has.

The Arts+Labs group said its main goal will be to educate consumers and highlight innovations by media companies and ISPs to make the internet a better place to legally get songs, movies and TV shows.

"It's almost like safe sex," co-chair of the group Mike McCurry said. "How do we actually help people understand that something that they enjoy doing they need to be thinking about ways in which they can protect themselves and protect others."

The group's other co-chair is Mark McKinnon. McCurry and McKinnon were previously aides to former President Bill Clinton and Sen. John McCain respectively.

Author: Theo Salvador

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