Business Leaders Seek Anti-Piracy Action --Excite News

Oct 4, 2:08 PM (ET)

By JANE WARDELL

LONDON (AP) - Business leaders representing industries ranging from pharmaceutical to software agreed at a meeting here Tuesday to form a coalition to lobby governments around the world to step up the fight against international piracy and counterfeiting.

Executives including Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) Chief Executive Officer Steven Ballmer, EMI Group PLC Chairman Eric Nicoli and NBC Universal Chief Executive Officer Bob Wright said many governments had not done enough to legislate against - or enforce existing legislation against - the theft of intellectual property. NBC Universal is , a unit of General Electric Co. (GE)

"We need an adequate legal framework and enforcement capacity," said Vivendi Universal Chairman Jean-Rene Fourtou after the meeting. "We are very far from that even in the U.S., and Europe is quite worse."

Nicoli warned governments that the companies forming the coalition under the banner "Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy" were worth around $1,000 billion, with a work force of 1 million and served more than a billion people.

"These aren't statistics, we respectfully suggest, that governments can afford to ignore," he said.

Nicoli declined to name countries that were dragging their heels on the fight against piracy, but said that the coalition would draw up a series of indices and publish them within the year.

He said the executives had decided to tackle the problem in the same way the pirates operate, by forming a coalition across industries and countries.

Nicoli on Tuesday dismissed suggestions by Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL) that a single price for songs sold over the Internet would help prevent piracy in the music industry.

"I'm not persuaded by the argument that a single price deters piracy," Nicoli said at a news conference in London to promote a new coalition of

Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs last month called music companies greedy for seeking higher prices for music downloaded from the Internet, saying such moves would increase piracy.

While the music industry has so far borne the brunt of copyright theft, with its easily reproducible and distributable products, the executives pointed out that almost every other industry is vulnerable.

Ballmer told the conference that the software industry is losing up to $32 billion annually to piracy. In the pharmaceuticals sector, up to 10 percent of products worldwide are counterfeit, rising to as much as 50 percent to 60 percent in the developing world.

"Nobody is immune," said Wright. "There are elements that are very bad and the reputations of countries and citizens are at stake."

Nicoli said there would be no "overnight success" in tackling piracy and counterfeiting but pointed to improvements in the music industry, which has waged a campaign against digital piracy over the past few years. The multi-pronged approach by the music industry has included a public education campaign and a series of lawsuits against individual file-sharers around the world.

"We are seeing progress and we are at least containing piracy," Nicoli said of the music industry.

The executives agreed to combine their current efforts to fight piracy and create the first global cross-sector stock-take of the size of the problem. They will also lobby other businesses to join the coalition.

""We are seeing progress and we are at least containing piracy," "

Prove it.

i've seen less HK anime dvd's around. i guess that's proof.

The act of piracy is taken on steps so that we can adjust business models so that consumers can flow their purchased media through networks, media interoperability, and develop a secure media marketing that benefits consumers and creates the final balance between copyright holders and consumers.

My proposal is for plans to find the structure for the digital age, how consumers are going to use data, and how marketing is going.

First, we must elinimate physical media. Physical media has unconsumer friendly protection measures. "Copy Protected" is what consumers don't want. Consumers want to flow their media throughout their electronics they've purchased.

In the media room, you have a centeral operating media server and a backup secure server to protect the media from worms and viruses by doing a nightly secure backup and disconnects. So, in case, their media server has been infected by a virus, their backup data is protected.

Quite generally at home, consumers have two copies of music, games, and movies at home--one for main use and one in the backup server. Each ternimal, like a TV or a stereo, contains docking stations where consumers take the media with them during trips or whatever. Everybody has a portable player for their enjoyment in which consumers take with them.

Also, the DRM system identifies who device it belongs to. DRM is going to identify who it belongs to, and who's portable device it is. You are going to have a DRM ID, your brother's going to have a DRM ID, and so fourth.

But how do you transfer your media from an old server to a new server? Smart cards! When you buy a smart card, the card has a DRM under your name, and the card is smart enough to reconize who's media it belongs to, and who's electronic it is. If an electronic device does not match the Smart Card ID, the smart card will them provide a browser where you can get the music from by shopping. If the price is paid, the smart card than copies the music onto the device under his or her ID.

Also, legal filesharing, super distribution, HD Radio, and Web Radio are going to be other means of distribution. Movies are going to go downloads and cable, while videogames is a similer fashion.

"My proposal is for plans to find the structure for the digital age, how consumers are going to use data, and how marketing is going."

Why not let each individual decide for themself what software/hardware they want to use? Why should there be any "mandated solution" at all? (Other than for control and a continued "top down" architecture?)

JDonahue, love ya for trying, but I'm NEVER gonna be convinced in any form of DRM.

DRM=Do Ruin Memories

Independent,

"JDonahue, love ya for trying, but I'm NEVER gonna be convinced in any form of DRM."

Which is why you should like us. We don't put any form of drm on our mp3s. We don't believe in locking the music up.

"many governments had not done enough to legislate against - or enforce existing legislation against - the theft of intellectual property."

Of course, I was going to add the usual tirade against the record companies and how they stole it from the artists in the first place.

Then I saw this:
"We don't put any form of drm on our mp3s."

"our mp3s"????

Maybe EMI is right.

George,

"Maybe EMI is right."

It was a figure of speech. We fully credit the artist with the work in the .nfo files. We're not into screwing the artist per say, We believe we help the artist by exposing more listeners to that persons music.

Critiquing the post the Troller, JDonahue:

"The act of piracy is taken on steps so that we can adjust business models so that consumers can flow their purchased media through networks,...

We already CAN flow purchased media through networks, the RIAA/MPAA is trying syupefy the masses into thinking there is no such thing as computer networking, and they are coming off as though they are inventing it, now, after its already existed for decades.

..."media interoperability"

How stupid does someone have to be for someone to not realize that taking something away that we already had, and then "giving it back (in a bastardized way)"
equates to TAKING AWAY from YOU, not giving you anything? When someone puts **ONE** restriction of any type that is outside the specifications of true Redbook CD, or true DVD standards, THAT IS THEFT FROM YOU, THE CONSUMER, because its rescinding the freedom of fair use that everyone has under U.S. Law.

..."and develop a secure media marketing that benefits consumers"

No such thing as "secure", don't even get me started on that, and noones benefiting consumers at ALL they way they are and the way they intend to go with this bullcrap. They can benefit consumers by slashing prices, stop all lawsuits, and remove ALL DRM, and rescind the DMCA. The main reason IMHO that people fileshare their works etc (and moreso software) is because it is way the hell too expensive. I know people that if they paid for all the software they had, they'd have to have had a $250,000 a year income, or more, get fucking real. If the price is too high, ITS GOING TO BE GOTTEN FOR FUCKING FREE, AND NOONE CAN STOP IT. If companies (say Adobe for example) don't like it--then go get another fucking job and stop pretending that you can make a living programming software (thinking in terms that your direct income is threatened from so-called "piracy").

The whole thing is unbelieveable, the biggest thing that is going to be a monumental cockblock to these sons of bitches, including people that think like JDonatroller, is when they will have to stomp on freedom of speech, because Linux will WTFPWN M$FT cockblock Vista, and NONE CAN FORCE DRM IN LINUX, because its OPEN SOURCE, and there's many distributions all over the world, and most if not all will REJECT putting DRM compliance in Linux.

If people someday cant watch their movies or listen to their music on Linux, DRM free, oh well guess what that means? Maybe people will go back to reading fucking BOOKS instead of sitting infroni of a computer screen, or TV all day. Music and movies are NOT Food, shelter, water, air or sunlight. They are NOT required at ALL to live, therefore, if those material things become a burden to enjoy IN ANY WAY, people will simply remove them from their life, and the RIAA/MPAA makes NO MONEY from someone who utterly boycotts them.

Remember Maxheadroom? Maybe someday, like in that movie, turning off your TV (or other electronic device) will be punishable by DEATH.

..."and creates the final balance between copyright holders and consumers."""

ROFL!!@! I'll rephrase this one: and pretends to "create" *THE BEGINNING* (NOT FINAL) "balance" (shifted ALL the way over to Hollywood) between us, the cartel, and these pissant, bitchy customers.


"...My proposal is for plans to find the structure for the digital age, how consumers are going to use data, and how marketing is going."

Your proposal can quite frankly, fuck off, we already HAVE a "structure", we already USE data however the hell we want, and the market can shove it up its ass, if they can't make money, it is THIER OWN DAMN FAULT THEY BROUGHT IT UPON THEMSELVES, so shut your ass.



..."First, we must elinimate physical media."

Who is "we"? get bent man, I WANT physical media because its PROPERTY that I can tangibly utilize. And Hard drives are physical media, lmao, get an education--good luck getting rid of hard drives, might have the same luck trying to get everyone in the U.S. to remove the tires from their cars, "permanently"


Physical media has unconsumer friendly protection measures. "Copy Protected" is what consumers don't want. Consumers want to flow their media throughout their electronics they've purchased.

Really? So explain to me how removing copy protected CD's, transitioning over to copy protected digital downloads is any innovation and improvement? Silence? Not suprising, have a nice day, take and bang your head against the wall 100 times and think about the idiocity that you freely dump upon this website with reckless abandon, imo, your IP and your account, should be banned, because you never even respond to anyone's comments, and you apparaently don't read anyone's comments either, you're a useless, clueless spammer as far as I am concerend, JDonahue.

The rest of the crap you posted I'm not going to bother with, you have no excuse anymore, not to see the facts in contrast to your delusional pseudo-analysis of reality.

One thing I will say though, is I (and many others) will be damned, if ANYONE thinks they can try and force me to have or carry or use, in any way, any type of RFID, or other Identifying device that broadcasts a signal from my person or my home, etc.

Watch out for those new National I.D. cards. There's a nice quick way to kill RFID, it's called a microwave. National ID. meet microwave, now, fuck off, and don't ever try to violate my privacy again.

Wow, was that awesome or what!