[A2k] Open business opportunism

[Alan Story]

Journalist Kaitlin Mara missed a very revealing set of comments in her
reportage on the open business panel at the A2K3 conference last week in
Geneva ( =93Open Business Systems Fill Gap in Mainstream Entertainment
Industry=94 in Intellectual Property Watch, 12 September; posted on the A2K
list 15 September.)

The three speakers at this session ---- Case and Lemos from Brazil, Igwe
from Nigeria --- had given us many examples of how both the Brazilian
tecnobrega music scene and the Nigerian =93Nollywood=94 film industry had
grown, spread, and prospered over the past decade by ignoring copyright
laws. In fact, in the case of Nollywood ---- now worth more than US $200
million a year ---- =93piracy built our market,=94 explained film producer
Igwe.

So, asked a questioner right at the end of the session --- I am afraid I
don=92t know his name ---.now that your two industries are so popular and
doing very well, do you see a future role for intellectual property in
these two industries?

Oh yes, replied Lemos. He said he hoped that such Brazilian music will be
used in various forms of new technology, such as mobile telephones, and
copyright law protection would be very useful here.

Film producer Igwe echoed this view. He said Nigerian film producers would
soon begin discussions with copyright officials in that country to
formulate some new copyright laws that would be useful for Nollywood.

The responses of Lemos and Igwe remind me of how the government of the
United States of America has acted towards foreign owned copyright during
its history.

In the 19th century, when the USA was a young and growing country and
badly in need of English language materials, it had no hesitations in
ignoring foreign-owned copyrights. The works of the well-known English
novelist Charles Dickens were a favourite of the US =93pirates.=94

But once the USA became top of the world copyright heap --- today it
exports far more copyrighted works than any other country in the world ---
no country has been more shrill in the call to =93 crack down on those nast=
y
pirates. =93

Perhaps some in the A2K =93movement=94 may agree that it is perfectly prope=
r
to take what we could call a =93pragmatic attitude=94 to national and globa=
l
intellectual property laws.

Ignore them when you don=92t need them and, in fact, build up your consumer
base by encouraging piracy. Then when you get to the top of your own
particular heap, advocate the use of strong copyright laws to consolidate
your position and your profits.

Some would label this as the oldest marketing tactic in the world: =93make
sure you take advantage of a good business opportunity.=94 The rest of us
would label it simply as =93open business opportunism.=94

Alan Story
Kent Law School,
Canterbury, UK
Chairperson, The Copy South Research Group


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For identification only:

Alan Story
Senior Lecturer, Intellectual Property Law
Kent Law School
University of Kent
Canterbury Kent
United Kingdom      CT2 7NS
acs3@kent.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)1227 823316