After the films, the European Commission now wants to extend good practices to all types of content online. The intention was announced yesterday by Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for the Information Society, who is preparing a strategic document on the subject to present later this year.
In a speech made yesterday at CeBIT, the official acknowledged the problem of piracy online but he defended the need to create rules that encourage the development of the market.
Viviane Reding admits that failure to safeguard intellectual property rights in the dissemination of content via the Internet destroys value, but warns that they are vital to feed the businesses of network operators who, if they fail to obtain what they need in Europe, will acquire it elsewhere.
For the commissioner, the promotion of the market does not depend only on an effective legal system, but on a clear bet by producers and suppliers on appealing and easy to use products, which represent an added value easily perceived by the user.
In this sense, it is necessary that «the industry cooperates in standard open «, instead of creating» gardens enclosed in walls that some want to build «. This type of strategy, she considers responsible,» reduces the value of a network economy «.
For Viviane Reding, the way of being in the market today will have repercussions tomorrow. Consumer response is slow and this makes it necessary to assess more than «short-term effects».
One of the evidences of this slow but effective adherence to the new realities of the content offer is the advertising market, which in 2005 was worth 850 million euros and in 2010 is expected to be worth 2 billion, thanks mainly to the growth of advertising online. Although it has a significant impact, advertising online does not contribute more than 6 percent to the total for the sector, underlines the commissioner.
The various factors and the potential of the market justify, in the commissioner’s view, the ability to «restructure the media to address the challenge of new technologies, new markets and new business models».
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