78 M€ download damage and 6 more things I learned about copyright

78 Million euros is the turnover lost by the film and DVD industry in the Netherlands due to illegal downloading. This was recently revealed in a press release announced. Yesterday, it was also one of the topics at a discussion afternoon organised by Film Producers Netherlands (FPN) on copyright developments.

Once upon a time, in the book age, everything was simple. Now, in the image and internet world, everyone is angry with each other, says copyright expert Christiaan Alberdingk Thijm. A complicated tangle of stakeholders and interests,

that was also yours truly's impression after three hours of bombardment with info and views. Some notes:

1. Dickens was already suffering

Copyright was born in the days when the writer was at the beginning of the orderly chain of author-press-publisher-book-reader. But even then, there were pirates. The British writer Charles Dickens had no copyright in the United States so his work was reproduced there untroubled. Free for readers? No, it was the newspaper publishers who profited, as Robert Levine, author than the high-profile Free Ride: How Digital Parasites Are Destroying the Culture Business and How the Culture Business Can Fight Back, told us.

2. Netherlands pirate country

The Netherlands, too, was once a free haven for book pirates. But this allowed a book industry to emerge (Alberdingk Thijm).

3. Copyright no longer works properly

Settling rights internationally is a witch's tour, as each country has its own copyright law. Quality filmmakers divert to television in the US because there is easier financing there. Television is another market (Levine). Enthusiastic about Blendle's innovation, Levine is caught off guard by Wijbrand Schaap (Freelancers Association). "Blendle doesn't pay freelance authors a penny!"

Paul Keller of Kennisland identifies the difficulties heritage institutions struggle with. "Rights holders are irresponsible people who can't be found when you need them," he says.

4. European copyright in the making

‘The current fragmented copyright system in the European Union is bad for the European economy. Meanwhile, US companies are profiting from that situation.' So thinks Eurocommissioner Neelie Kroes, who is pushing for a European copyright. A luring prospect that solves many problems? Attendees see snags. Beware that this new uniform copyright is not lobbied together by a few big internet and technology companies. Are there any real Europe-wide film producers? Is there also pan-European funding?

5. Precursor?

From the press release of the FPN: 'Downloading from illegal sources was allowed in the Netherlands for the past 12 years because the government believed it fell within the limits of the home copying exception. However, the European Court of Justice has declared this Dutch interpretation unlawful. As a result, downloading from illegal sources has been banned in the Netherlands from 10 April 2014.'

Whether this has any real consequences we wait to see. At least the advantage is that we can now just write 'illegal downloads', instead of 'downloads from illegal sources'.

6. Research download damage

Also from the FPN press release: 'The Dutch film industry loses at least €78.4 million in revenue (including VAT) annually as a result of downloading films from illegal sources. This is according to the report Because it is free, prepared by Considerati. This report provides the first insight into the damages suffered by the film industry due to downloading from illegal sources. The damage calculation is partly based on the consumer survey Only decent people to downloading behaviour.'

The term 'Dutch film industry' is taken broadly here: from filmmaker to cinema operator, DVD distributor and internet shop. One conclusion of the study is that for every 10 illegal (free) downloads, 3.2 fewer films are bought (DVD, vod). Cinema attendance does not suffer.

Can you really know what someone would have bought if there had been no pirate offer? Difficult, of course, but on the face of it, the research is serious, without too wild speculation. Bart Schermer of Consideration calls the 10/3 ratio "plausible" and believes that the loss of sales is between 70 and 90 million euros with fairly high certainty. It is an amount that also reasonably reflects the actual decline in sales (and rentals) in the DVD industry.

7. Are we going to raise 78 million now?

However illegal downloads are tackled, we are obviously not going to collect the full 78 million, everyone agrees. If only because consumers can spend it in other ways - games, days out, a new iPhone.

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Levine does have one piece of advice that makes sense. 10 to 20 per cent of downloaders are hardliners who want to get their films for free at any cost. Forget that group. On the other hand, there are the 10 to 20 per cent who even now bravely just buy everything. So target the large middle group that might be willing to pay if it means less hassle. Make piracy difficult. And above all, make sure that legal (paid) downloads are widely and easily available at a reasonable price.