Andrew Walmsley on digital: Music trade should go with digital flow

Threatening to take single mums to court for their kids' downloads and
suing file-sharing site Napster, the industry has fought tooth and nail
to halt the growth of piracy and the file-sharing sites that feed
it.

Despite this, consumers have been voting with their mouse - more than
10m people shared files on Pirate Bay, until it was closed by Swedish
police earlier this month, and 26m on Napster before it was shut down in
2001. More than a third of web traffic is said to be in the form of
torrents - typically video files being shared between users - and the
appetite for illegal downloads seems insatiable.

Now the industry has dragged the Department for Culture, Media and Sport
into building dykes for them to stick their finger into. A draft copy of
the forthcoming Green Paper on the creative industries, quoted in The
Times, set out the government's intention to force internet service
providers (ISPs) to 'take action on illegal file-sharing'.

In other words, the idea is that ISPs will monitor not just what types
of files are being shared by users, but the actual content, and,
presumably, copyright status, of those files. Many ISPs already
discriminate between file types, usually to ensure quality of service
for users - data for a phone call has to be prioritised to avoid the
sound breaking up, while an email arriving half a second later rarely
makes any difference to anyone.

But this is quite different, because it will require ISPs to first spy
on users and then punish them for infringing the law, withdrawing the
service from them and providing evidence to record companies.

The BPI has been lobbying for ages for this. Chief executive Geoff
Taylor is quoted on its website calling for ISPs to tie with the music
industry to help grow the creative economy, and accusing them of having
'built a business on other people's music'.

Ignoring the fact that ISPs, and the web, have been built on a fair bit
more than just music, his proposed partnership is, in reality, a bit
one-sided. ISPs will act as his police force, but he does not propose to
pay them for it.

ISPs argue that in a similar way to the Post Office and phone companies,
they are 'common carriers', with no responsibility for what they convey.
This seems self-evident, but perhaps Mr Taylor would contend that Tarmac
should be held accountable for the development of the getaway car in
robberies.

While it is disappointing that the government seems to have been sucked
into supporting this, it is not that surprising coming from the music
industry.

Digital represents a huge threat to its existing business model and it
is one that will continue to grow, rather than go away. But digital also
represents exciting opportunities.

New businesses will be built, additional industries created and fresh
fortunes made, and record companies are in a prime position to
capitalise on the potential. Perhaps, if the music business spent half
the time that it devotes to trying to turn back the tide, to thinking
about how to tap into this potential, it might have a chance of
succeeding.

It needs to look forward, but having an industry body that includes the
word phonographic in its name doesn't seem to be a sign that it is ready
for that.

- Andrew Walmsley is co-founder of i-level

30 SECONDS ON ... BPI

- The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is the British record
industry's trade association.

- It has represented the interests of British record companies since
1973, when its principal aim was to fight copyright infringement.

- Its membership comprises hundreds of music companies including Warner
Music Group, EMI, Sony BMG, and Universal Music Group.

- It founded the BRIT Awards for the British music industry, as well as
the Mercury Prize to recognise the Album of the Year.

- The BPI divides its work into protection, promotion, and
representation and support.

- It protects the interests of its members by enforcing copyright law in
the UK through means including civil and criminal litigation, lobbying
against filesharing sites, and supporting other enforcement agencies in
anti-copyright infringement raids.