Last week I attended the Copyright Alliance‘s 2008 EXPOnential in D.C. This event gave the copyright industries an opportunity to showcase their contribution to the economy and the lost revenues due to piracy. "Ho Hum" you might be thinking. However, two things really stuck me while walking through the exibits: 1) there were many exhibits by smaller copyright industries that aren’t typically included in the piracy debate and 2) DRM is not going away- in fact, there is an active market place for DRM products.
Critics of strong copyright protection focus their angst at the major entertainment industries. But, there are several smaller industries that depend on copyright protection in order for its members to earn a modest living, in comparison to the industry giants.
For example, the Graphic Artists Guild demonstrated the valuable contributions of illustrators and graphic artists to society through entertainment, social commentary, and marketing. Another example is the American Society of Picture Professionals, which highlighted the vast body of work that is made available to the public by photographers. Copyight law and the DMCA create a favorable marketplace for these small businesses to continue to innovate and create new products and services for consumers to enjoy. Many employed in these industries are not "rich." In fact, they are people pursuing a career in what they are passionate about. Their livliehoods depend on the ability to protect their products and without those protections, they lose, consumers lose, we all lose.
And, the DRM market place is thriving with innovative solutions for copyright owners seeking to protect their works in the digital environment. Many of the exhibits provided materials about the importance of DRM to limiting piracy. One of the exhibitors explained that DRM products work best when the consumer hardly notices them. Obviously, that is not always the case. But its clear that is the goal and there is much innovation taking place to meet that need.
One interesting example is Vobile. Vobile offers two solutions to help content owners track their content and prevent unauthorized use while also enabling them to monetize new digital distribution channels: 1) Video-Tracker for content owners which tracks use of content online and enables owners to initiate enforcement of rights; and 2) MediaWise for distributors of online content so that unauthorized content can be blocked prior to distributution and allow content owners to collaborate with the distributors in new business models. Vobile recently partnered with NBC to successfully reduce piracy of the Olympic coverage on UGC websites using VideoTraker.
What I believe is the most important aspect of this is that the DMCA is central to it all- even the DRM innovators. The DMCA enables both big and SMALL creators to enter the digital marketplace. The DMCA creates a marketplace for technology that provides protection for digital works online. AND, the fact that the DMCA allows so many exemptions to what innovators can do to access and use content is critical to innovators of products such as DRM technology.
Granted, DRM isn’t always consumer friendly or even rational to users. However, to the general public, it ain’t bad. And though I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again- when creators of copyright or technology have legal remedies to protect their rights, they will create more and consumers and creators alike will benefit!
