c&binet commentary

Lots of random thoughts occurring as I listen to the folks on the stage. Forgive me if they don't form full sentences!

We seem to be going around in circles on this "protect copyright at all costs" thing. Lots of big boys looking to preserve that status quo. Strong words being used like "theft". Adding value to content is the only way to make money from it in the future.

Great guy asking a question and saying that content authors/musicians fear obscurity more than piracy.

Another saying piracy dropping in the world by 40% without any strong arm tactics (lots from the establishment saying you need carrots and sticks with the emphasis on sticks). That's the guy from the open rights group (of which we're members!).

Interestingly and sadly this conference, which is all about digital and content really, doesn't have power points available in the room which means that twitterers with hardware that has crappy battery life can only participate for the first half hour lol.

Perhaps we need to look at where people do buy on a pay per use. The public don't really understand licencing (and their rights to use the content that they buy in the way that they use).

On the stage is the publisher behind Dan Brown. Obviously very defensive about ensuring that their content is protected. Says that the publisher adds value by selecting, editing and then publishing. Filtering out the crap. I don't think there's an argument against that.

Chappy from govt keeps talking about stopping people breaking the law. Great chap, Chris, heckling from LBI making the point that prohibition has never worked. He rightly says that you need to build your business models around human behaviour.

Content will always be king - but it's the route for other businesses to access highly targetted audiences. Advertising models will need to change a bit but there's alot to that approach. Carrots and no sticks - sounds about right. Trying to stem P2P is pointless and futile.

The word "rights" comes up constantly. Think we need a show: "whose rights are they anyway?" because they're all living in fear of a lawsuit because they don't know who owns the rights in order to safely release or give access to certain bits of content (museums for example).

Content as a service/subscription seems to be a really good way forward. Quantising content into content "products" is opening up a whole world of pain in terms of regulation, DRM, protection etc. Don't know about anyone else in the room but I'm feeling quite frustrated that the act of letter-writing to 14 year old kids is cited as something that is going to sort everything out. Stop thinking about consumers as the criminals. Think of them as VOTERS. They vote with their money. If there is something worth buying, they will buy it.

Battery life is now practically gone so I'll publish. More when I find more juice!