Music business warns of copyright threat

Date: 23/04/1998

By Peter Chapman

EUROPE's leading record companies are warning that draft EU copyright rules are woefully inadequate to protect the music industry in the digital age.

Frances Moore, EU affairs director of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), says her organisation plans to launch a lobbying assault on Euro MPs to convince them to amend the proposals drawn up by the European Commission.

"At present, the threats from the digital age outweigh the advantages, because the protection is not there. That is why the major record companies are hesitant really to invest beyond maintaining their own Internet websites," she said.

The IFPI, which represents labels such as EMI Music and PolyGram, has three key concerns over the draft directive. Moore claims that unless these are addressed, record companies will be deterred from developing new forms of music delivery.

The industry fears the draft directive does not give adequate protection against home copying and commercial piracy. The IFPI argues that home copying, which is tolerated in the analogue world, should not be exempt from copyright rules in the digital age because users are now able to distribute perfect quality replicas of original master recordings.

"In the analogue age, we calculated as a rule of thumb that for every compact disc, three copies were made on a cassette. If that is the case for analogue, then with digital the sky is the limit," said Moore.

"If you put a recording on an Internet bulletin board, then anyone can copy it. Without adequate protection, it is like a music company giving away its most precious asset."

Another key area of concern is the proposed exemption from copyright rules for temporary copies held in computer networks. The Commission included this in the draft directive in response to pressure from computer and telecoms operators who argued that temporary copies were necessary in the normal operation of networks such as the Internet.

But Moore claims the exemption would leave the music industry "wide open to piracy", adding: "We are not talking about the consumer here, but big business."

At the same time, she argues, the draft directive fails to give music companies full rights to control how they distribute and are paid for works broadcast in digital form over specialised 'multi-channel services', which pump out music and videos related to specific themes and artists at regular intervals.

These services, already popular in Japan, can be copied in perfect digital form by consumers, who simply program their 'mini-disc' or recordable CD machines to turn on and off at exact times published by service providers in programme guides.

The IFPI fears that if the industry does not have control over these services, consumers will create their own compilation albums rather than buy recordings.

Moore said IFPI representatives were planning to meet MEPs next week and would give them practical demonstrations of how easily new digital technology can be abused by pirates.

"Up until now the debate has been very legalistic. We want to show them what is at stake, and show it with concrete examples," she said.

Specialist committees of the European Parliament are about to begin examining the Commission's proposals in detail, but MEPs are not expected to deliver their final verdict on the issue until September.