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Copyright law, digital content and the Internet in the Asia-Pacific >
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/2123/2345
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| Title: | WHY EMERGING BUSINESS MODELS AND NOT COPYRIGHT LAW ARE THE KEY TO MONETISING CONTENT ONLINE |
| Authors: | Priest, Eric |
| Keywords: | Copyright - Asia Pacific
Internet
China |
| Issue Date: | 2008 |
| Publisher: | Sydney University Press |
| Citation: | Copyright law, digital content and the Internet in the Asia-Pacific. |
| Abstract: | The multimedia Internet is here to stay. Rich media – including videos,
music, podcasts, and flash animation – is already a key feature of the
Internet experience, and will only grow in diversity and importance. As
Internet users increasingly crave – and technology increasingly enables –
multimedia content delivered on demand over broadband connections,
the number of songs, videos, and other media online will increase
exponentially to feed the demand.
As online media consumption increases, so will expectations for its
capacity to generate revenue for content owners and creators. Analysts
boldly predict a bright future for the entertainment industries, especially
in Asia, with broadband Internet cited as a key growth driver.1 The main
point of contention in the 2007 Hollywood writers’ strike was
compensation for media streamed or downloaded over the Internet.2
Yet, to date, the vast majority of music and video acquired or consumed
online is free and uncompensated. Despite the rising expectations for monetising content on the Web, no clear sustainable, scalable model for
monetising content has emerged that compare to the level of revenues
copyright owners have enjoyed in the “physical” (as opposed to online)
market.
This chapter considers the primary strategies that the international music
and film industries have employed to date, namely lawsuits and
technological protections, and why these strategies have failed to
produce a viable path to long-term revenue generation. I argue that
content owners should not hold out hope that using law (in the form of
copyright infringement lawsuits against individuals) or technology (in the
form of digital rights management encryption software) will unlock the
Web’s potential for monetising their content. Instead, successful
monetisation of content online will come through business models that
can harness and monetise the current behaviour of Internet users. There
are three emerging such models, each of which has significant potential
and challenges: retail online content subscriptions, ad-supported
content, and voluntary blanket licensing.
The following discussion is mostly broad, outlining circumstances facing
copyright owners globally, and some emerging potential solutions.
Nevertheless, I make a point throughout to highlight the situation in
China in particular. Why? China is a challenging but dynamic Internet
and digital media market, and is in fact the first market in the world
where all three of the emerging models discussed in this chapter are
actually being deployed in an effort to jumpstart the digital creative
economy. China is an important market for the rest of the world to
watch regarding emerging monetisation models.
Lastly this chapter is not meant to be a comprehensive overview of the
many innovative ways that musicians, filmmakers, and other creators
and companies are using the Web to make money from their content.
Undoubtedly the Web has empowered many small and medium-sized
content owners to distribute their works and connect with their fans in
exciting and unprecedented ways. The purpose of this chapter is to
explore the Web’s potential for generating wide-scale, significant, and
sustainable content revenues for the entertainment industry, including
minor and major content owners. |
| Description: | Presented at the First International Forum on the Content Industry: Legal and Policy Framework for the Digital Content Industry collaboratively held by the East China University of Political Science and Law (http://www.ecupl.edu.cn) and the Queensland University of Technology (http://www.qut.edu.au) in Shanghai, People’s Republic of China, May 2007. This publication is an output of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (http://www.cci.edu.au) Queensland University of Technology. |
| URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/2123/2345 |
| ISBN: | 9781920898724 |
| Appears in Collections: | Copyright law, digital content and the Internet in the Asia-Pacific
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