February 22, 2012

Youth Having Huge Impact On Future Of Online TV, Movies and Music, New Columbia University Study Finds: Nearly Three Quarters Of Respondents Ages 18 to 29 Say They Have Illegally Acquired Entertainment Media

Young people want their music, TV and movies now — even if it means they get these things illegally. A recent Columbia University survey, funded by a grant from Google, found, in fact, that 70 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds said they had bought, copied or downloaded unauthorized music, TV shows or movies, compared with 46 percent of all adults who'd done the same. With such an entrenched attitude, what can be done about widespread online piracy? Certainly law enforcement has gone after scofflaws like these, hitting them with fines and, in some cases, even jail time. Congress is considering controversial anti-piracy bills that would, among other things, forbid search engines from linking to foreign websites accused of copyright infringement. And there are lawsuits pitting media heavyweights against Internet firms — notably Viacom's billion-dollar litigation against YouTube. But here's a radical notion to consider: What if young people who steal content weren't viewed as the problem? What if they and advocates for maximum online access could persuade the entertainment industry to loosen its tight grip on its coveted, copyrighted material — quite the opposite of what the industry is trying to do right now? "The real problem is not pirates downloading illegally, but a failure to innovate on the part of the content providers," said Steven Budd, a law student at Drexel University in Philadelphia, according to an AP news release. Like it or not, that's how a lot of people of his generation view the situation. "We've seen the emergence of a real social movement around these issues," said Joe Karaganis, vice president of the American Assembly, a public policy institute at Columbia University, referencing the recent "blackouts" staged by popular sites like Wikipedia and Reddit.

Some experts think these young radicals are gaining clout, as they insist on easy access to music and other content while the Internet world loudly protests anti-piracy legislation that it says unfairly puts the responsibility of policing piracy sites on search engines and other sites. But here's the surprising part — a lot of young people don't necessarily expect to get movies, TV shows and music for free. "I do think people would pay for this content if it's reasonably priced and it's available when they want to watch it," said Srikant Mikkilineni, a law student at Drake University in Des Moines, reports the news release by AP writer Martha Irvine.

Many young people point to Apple's iTunes service as a model that could be replicated by other entertainment companies.

"iTunes changed the landscape for music because it made it far too convenient and much easier than downloading music through alternative methods (even illegal ones)," said Matt Gardner, an information technology student at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, the release reports.

But even more than convenience, a recent study at Duke University found that cost was the major factor that drives college students to copy entertainment content illegally. Researchers there found that the lower the students' income, including their parents' income, the more likely they were to search for free, illegal options.

To address the issue of cost, the study's authors suggested that universities consider making licensing agreements with services that sell entertainment content so that students could get a discount.

Cornell University is one institution that has experimented with this. From 2004 to 2006, an anonymous donor paid for two years' worth of Napster service for Cornell students, but students ultimately declined to have their student activity fees raised to continue the service because the music couldn't be played on all devices, according to the Duke study.

There are those who doubt that students would start paying for content they can pirate, especially when the habit has become so ingrained.

"Nobody's going to pay you for something they can get for free," said Glenn MacDonald, an economics professor at the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis, the release reports.

So he asks: What if you gave music and movies to consumers for free, or asked them to pay what they thought the content was worth?

Some bands such as Radiohead are already doing that — in essence, using their songs to build a following and entice people to pay to see them in concert and, once there, to buy their merchandise.

The song becomes the ad, MacDonald says. Or a movie on the small screen becomes the driving force for a line of merchandise or drives the wish to see it again on a big screen in 3-D or at a special theater event. A free clip from a TV show seen online draws viewers to the show.

"It's like a bar. They give you the peanuts so you buy the beer," MacDonald says.

He notes that music companies already take a cut of money made from concerts, merchandise and endorsements. So he thinks that should, at the very least, offset the cost of the recorded music to consumers, who've been increasingly willing to pay big prices to see artists live.

"Music companies would be better served by increasing their focus on how to make artists' music, and especially their concerts, even better," MacDonald says.

Nice thought, but not realistic, said Thomas Carpenter, general counsel for legislative affairs for the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, a union that represents people working in the entertainment industry. As it stands, he says 90 percent of the earnings that a musician currently makes under a recording contract is tied directly to royalties from sales, including lawful downloads. For actors, he says, it's about 50 percent. "There's a lot at stake — much more than most people realize," Carpenter said, the release reports.

And he adds, "You have to be paid in order to be good. You have to use the funds from your projects to fund your future creativity."