Highlights from the World Copyright Summit

On Tuesday, June 9th, the World Copyright Summit (2nd annual) brought in international industry leaders to Washington D.C. to address topics that cover the entire entertainment world. Although the Summit certainly provided more questions than answers, I find it useful to keep tabs of what’s brewing in the minds of the movers and shakers of industry. The event advertised four main topics to be discussed:

• New Visions for Creative Industries
• Challenges for Creators and Rights-owners in the Digital Era
• Weather Forecast on Copyright Climate
• Valuing the Creative Eco-System

In reality, it turned into an anti-Internet piracy fest. Unless you coughed up the dinero to attend in person (admission ranging from $800 – $1,199), here are some of the highlights collected from a variety of sources:

• There is a real debate over whether there should even be copyright protection. One speaker, author and Columbia Law School professor Michael Heller, referred to the tremendous made-for-television documentary, “Eyes on the Prize,” about the Civil Rights Movement as an example of this “copyright gridlock.” Because many of the images, photos and songs used in the documentary had so many different (often unknown) rights holders, there was a major hold on distributing the series after its initial airing. Given the majority of attendees to the conference, I don’t imagine Heller’s theory was well received. As a side note, if you have any interest in Civil Rights, read Juan William’s book that the docu was based upon (also titled, “Eyes on the Prize”). It’s tremendous.
• Whether or not it was a tongue-in-cheek offer is a bit unclear, but the head of Harry Fox Agency allegedly offered to help YouTube locate rights holders to music appearing on the YouTube website. There has been an ongoing and mostly unsuccessful stream of negotiations between the two groups over a royalty rate.
• Things got heated over whether radio broadcasters should pay a performance royalty. There is currently legislation in the works covering this issue. It is supposed to pass through the Senate Judiciary Committee this summer.
• Just about the only concession the industry made over illegal piracy was that it should not have fought new technology. Rather, it should have found a way to profit from it. Presumably the speaker (National Music Publishers Association president, David Israelite) was referring to Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, 464 U.S. 417 (1984) (production of a VCR with recording abilities did not render the manufacturer a copyright infringer). Aside from that, there was many a harsh word directed toward the illegal piracy dilemma. Needless to say, the industry is less than thrilled with the direction of Internet piracy.
• One suggestion to combat a seemingly un-winnable battle was to participate more actively in the free entertainment websites like Amazon’s music store, DRM-free iTunes, Spotify, Hulu, and Epix.. If you can’t beat them, might as well join them…
• Finally, there was some support for France’s new “three strikes and your out” policy against copyright infringement. I discussed this law in a previous posting.

While nothing substantive seems to directly result from these forums, it’s nice to get some insight on where the industry is headed.