[A2k] IP-Watch: Open Business Systems Fill Gap In Mainstream Entertainment Industry

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Intellectual Property Watch



Open Business Systems Fill Gap In Mainstream Entertainment Industry

By Kaitlin Mara
Outside the realm of mainstream proprietary entertainment, owned by big
studios and protected by brand names, lay large numbers of artists without
audiences looking for the means to distribute their creativity, and groups
of people who yearn for art reflective of experiences not touched upon by
the mainstream movies and music. These artists have created independent sid=
e
industries that challenge conventional views on piracy.

Such expression used to be the property of neighbourhood streets, or oral
tradition, but the digitising world has brought with it two important
changes: on the one hand, localised forms of creation and communication are
being outpaced and outcompeted by mass media capable of faster movement and
farther penetration; on the other, the internet and the rise of personal
recording equipment - coupled with its falling price - has placed the power
of communication within reach of those who want to grasp it.

=93We have cultures literally vanishing,=94 said Charles Igwe of motion pic=
ture
information and services company  <http://bigpicturenigeria.com/> The Big
Picture, which advises the successful Nigerian film industry: =93each time
someone dies, it is like losing a library.=94

The issue was addressed at a 9 September panel of Yale University Law
School=92s third annual Access to Knowledge conference.

In Brazil, said Ronaldo Lemos from the Center for Technology and Society at
Funda=E7=E3o Getulio Vargas (FGV) law school in Rio de Janeiro, major music
company Sony/BMG releases about 13 new compact discs a year. =93Where,=94 a=
sked
Lemos, =93is the Brazilian music?=94

The answer to that question is that out of these previously unrecorded
spaces, several independent industries have grown, with unique ways of
creation, recording, and distribution.

The Brazilian website  <http://tramavirtual.uol.com.br/> TramaVirtual, for
instance, boasts over 60,000 artists: =93an entire generation of art and mu=
sic
coming from this website rather than the traditional music industry,=94 sai=
d
Lemos. A popular form of Brazilian street music, tecnobrega, sees the
production of about 400 new CDs and 100 new DVDs every year, he added, =93b=
ut
you won=92t find them in stores.=94

This music is instead distributed directly to street vendors. The same
people normally thought to be selling pirated material have a deal with
tecnobrega in Brazil to sell the real thing, explained Lemos.

Such people are sometimes dismissed as pirates, said
<http://www.reginacase.com.br/> Regina Cas=E9 of Pindorama Produ=E7es
Artisticas, which she argued is unfair as the music is theirs.

 <http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=3D1221##>
 <http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=3D1221##>  Regina Cas=E9, with=
 help
from Ronaldo Lemos, talks about the relationship between prejudice towards
certain communities and the label of piracy
Cas=E9 spoke of her organisation=92s work in televising this music scene, a=
t
first in Brazil and increasingly around the world.

=93We travel,=94 she said, =93to places no one had an interest [in] before =
and
show people that were invisible to most=85 then we noticed that TV was no
longer what you normally see.=94 This TV programme was dubbed
<http://www.centraldaperiferia.globolog.com.br/> Central da Periferia - the
Centre of the Periphery - and plays the kind of music wildly popular in
peripheral areas, and often neglected by mainstream record makers. They
document distribution methods such as the =93candonga=94 - vans with speake=
rs,
so that people can listen to new music as the driver drives through a
neighbourhood.

A single episode of
<http://www.pindoramafilmes.com.br/tv/central-da-periferia> Central da
Periferia may reach over 100 million people, she said. On one video clip,
grinning musicians triumphantly grip the keyboard and cheer, =93Let=92s hea=
r it
for the technological outsiders!=94

Nor is Hollywood immune from this outpouring of creation from marginal
areas. In 2005, according to Lemos, Brazil released 51 new movies a year,
the United States 611, India 934, and Nigeria 1,200. In Nigeria, the cost t=
o
purchase a film is $3, and $0.50 for a rental. From these sales, the
industry generates $200 million a year, the third highest in the world afte=
r
the US and India.

Igwe said that after a 1992 decision to commercialise television
broadcasting in Nigeria, stations decided it would be cheaper and easier to
buy a foreign product. But there was a leftover and undersupplied market fo=
r
the old Nigerian TV stars and programmes that were then off TV. A movie mad=
e
with some of these stars sold 200,000 copies in a week; making clear the
potential in this industry.

Demand quickly outpaced the supply and soon pirate copies of films were
making their way into the market. Igwe said the industry faced two options:
to look for collaboration to stop counterfeiting and piracy - an expensive
prospect in a fledgling industry with no state support - or allow that ever=
y
disc, legitimate or not, that went into the market =93created an audience f=
or
us.=94 Behind the piracy, explained Igwe, was a desire for more of the
product; in the wake of piracy, even more new markets opened up.

 <http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=3D1221##>
<http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=3D1221##>   Charles Igwe discus=
ses
piracy in the Nigerian film industry

This is a key factor of open business, explained Elizabeth Stark of the Yal=
e
Information Society Project: they are =93not relying on traditional means o=
f
exclusive rights.=94 When traditional means of licensing are not an option
=93people work outside the system, innovate to create these models.=94

And in the western world, alternative forms of distribution and licensing
are catching on: the band Radiohead, for example, released its latest album
In Rainbows on a =93pay what you want=94 system. Another band, Nine Inch Na=
ils,
went even farther, noted Stark, releasing their latest album
<http://theslip.nin.com/> The Slip on a Creative Commons licence.

In 2008, Igwe said, the Nigeria=92s film industry, dubbed =93Nollywood,=94 =
is
making 2000 films a year - and it is not just growing, =93it=92s mushroomin=
g.=94
There is a =93massive cultural revival=94 in Africa, he said. In Uganda, an
Ugowood is growing; a Riverwood in Kenya is doing the same.

The explosion of these films is the first time there has been a way to
record traditions that are not conducive to being written down, traditions
that are otherwise at risk of being lost Igwe said. Nollywood is a business=
,
and has to be to survive, he explained, but it is a business with
extraordinary social impact and social responsibility.

 <http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=3D1221##>
<http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=3D1221##>   Charles Igwe talks
about the role of motion pictures in preserving Nigerian oral history in th=
e
knowledge economy

What underpins much of this drive for new business models may have its root=
s
in something even more fundamental than the desire for access to
information. Rishab Ghosh of United Nations University Maastricht Economic
and Social Research and Training Centre on Innovation and Technology
(UNU-MERIT) said of open source software, another form of participatory and
open business, that the key issue is really about =93not just access to
consuming knowledge=94 but also =93access to participation.=94

Intellectual Property Watch

+41 22 791 67 16

info@ip-watch.ch











 <http://www.ip-watch.org>





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