News

Calls on content owners to embrace existing legitimate digital distribution platforms so as to give the honest consumer a choice…

24th April 2002

Followings months of listening to and initiating discussion on what Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies mean for the music industry, for EU legislators, for technology companies and for end-consumers, the EDiMA Board adopted in Turin this week the EDiMA White Paper on Technology. The White Paper, which brings together the views of technology and digital distribution companies which are all members of the association, does not attempt to pick winners or losers in the race to assert the use of technology for content protection, but rather to identify the challenges with which all stakeholders are faced and to suggest possible ways to surmount these challenges.

"Given the huge increase in music piracy over the past years, it is time for content owners to take the plunge and license their content to legitimate distributors who are more than willing to use strong technology to protect that content. A combination of content, technology and legitimate digital platforms which already exist will at least give legitimate consumers the option of buying as opposed to stealing music on line" explained EDiMA President Adriano Marconetto of Vitaminic. "The longer the labels and collecting societies delay in licensing their content to legitimate on-line businesses, the more grave the situation will become - surely that is not what today's artists or record companies want."

The White Paper will also serve as a benchmark for EU legislators currently heavily involved in discussions as to whether DRMs should be standardised or not. "The EDiMA paper recognises DRMs as a means to protect copyright and asserts that the market should be left to decide what technologies do that job best; competition rules should be enforced to ensure interoperability of the many technologies out there, with the consumers and content owners ultimately deciding which technologies best suit their needs" explained Donagh O'Malley of Music Choice, a Board member of EDiMA.

Linked to the debate is of course the question of licensing in the European Internal Market. The EDiMA Board once again raised the issue of exclusive territoriality in the field of rights management, asking why there is no Internal Market for on-line distributors doing business across European borders. EDiMA will hold a conference on this topic in September, to be attended by industry players trying to grapple with the effects of territorial exclusivity of collecting societies in the EU. Details will follow in the coming months.




EDITOR’S NOTES:
· EDiMA is a European trade association representing at EU level many of the major firms involved in the provision of music on-line today in a bid to develop a stable economic and legal environment for these businesses. EDiMA is the primarily the new media industry interlocutor in negotiations and discussions with national and EU policymakers, collecting societies and music organisations in the EU. Members of the association include Music Choice, Vitaminic, Fnac.com and DMDsecure.