Blog

Member States and the Commission mobilise to fight counterfeiting and piracy

Valerie | 15 Dec 2009, 11:14

The Intellectual Property Rights debate took a big step forwards this week when European member states and the European Commission met in Stockholm under the umbrella of the European Observatory for Counterfeiting and Piracy to build on practical initiatives to respond to the increasing threat of counterfeiting and piracy and foster administrative cooperation across the EU.

Hosted by the Swedish Presidency, the group will work on existing legal frameworks and establish a databank on the specific areas of threat facing the EU in recognition of the need for greater enforcement efforts through practical non legislative means.

Internal Market and Services Commissioner Charlie McCreevy said:

“The EU is a world pacesetter for innovation, culture and creativity. It is time to put a stop to organised criminals freeloading on the ingenuity and hard work of the most resourceful businesses in the world. Counterfeiting and piracy is an affliction that is bringing criminality ever closer to our doors. It destabilises our societies and threatens public safety and jobs. More than this it places our hard earned money into the hands of criminals who have no conscience about using it to fund other forms of crime, including drugs and pornography.

We must do more to protect ourselves and the Observatory is a fundamental step in bringing together Member States authorities, private businesses and consumers in a joint, concerted effort to rid ourselves of this dangerous problem.“

Audio content revenue has potential for real growth, conference reveals

Alastair | 04 Dec 2009, 09:03

A conference in central London on 30 November revealed the extent to which, under the right circumstances, there could be a significant growth in revenue for the sector and for UK plc.

The conference ‘Monetising Audio Content: the Way Forward’ was jointly organised by the DCMS, through c&binet and by the Radio Independents Group (RIG), the trade body for UK independent radio and audio content producers.

Read the full c&binet / Radio Independents Group Press release. 

Blog article and podcast of part of the conference coming soon.

New opportunities for newspapers set out by Google and the Daily Mirror

Andrew | 03 Dec 2009, 10:30

Two contrasting but encouraging market developments for newspaper economics have emerged in the past couple of days, just as the noble Lords begin debating the Digital Economy Bill in detail for the first time.

Google, on its official blog, has announced a new five-clicks-for-free option for publishers wanting to promote paywall protected content. Google’s move is an updating of its First Click Free feature. Publishers can now choose to allow users to view up to five pages per site per day for free then limit access to further content to those willing to register or make a payment.

Paid for site, FT.com, reports the move as Google making a ‘concession to publishers’ and the ‘latest effort to persuade content owners that it is an ally rather than an enemy.’

The website of the London Evening Standard – a free newspaper in hard copy since 12 October 2009 – reports Google’s ‘surprise’ move in the face of increasing pressure from publishers, particularly Rupert Murdoch and News Corporation. At a two-day workshop in Washington on the future of newspapers, Rupert Murdoch criticised aggregators for “feeding off the hard-earned efforts and investments of others.“

Meanwhile, at the 62nd World Newspaper Congress in Hyderabad, Matt Kelly, associate editor of the Daily Mirror has been talking about the success his newspaper’s redeveloped websites: ‘sites that perform well for humans, not search engines.’

In his speech Kelly says ‘the new look mirror.co.uk was the fastest growing newspaper website in the country; year-on-year growth of 100 per cent or more – and the highest proportion of UK users of any newspaper website in the country.’

Kelly attributes the success to focussing more on Mirror brand values and character and less on search engine optimisation (SEO), given that ‘traffic from search engines is ridiculously low for a newspaper website.’

The Mirror decided to go for ‘a more emotional methodology’ in its navigation – in other words, “gasp,” “Tee-hee” and “Phwoar” instead of “music news,” “celebrity news” and “film news.”