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Traditionally, certain intellectual properties such as stories, research, music, movies, software etc. have had tangible forms (e.g. books, magazines, tapes, CD's, DVD's etc.) However, the proliferation of innovative digital media (cable, internet, and mobile) has rendered traditional means of leveraging and protecting intellectual assets mostly obsolete.
The question is, in an age of iTunes, PDF documents, Napster, on-demand TV, pay-per-view downloads, SMS etc., how can the producers of knowledge and content put their effort to full use while protecting it from being stolen? Also, why is it critically important for the economies of the Muslim world to embrace digital IP rights as a means for fostering growth in its intellectual asset base?.
To get some answers, I spoke to Mr.Shahid Khan*, a seasoned thought leader on digital media and consultant to some of the world's leading media firms such as Bertelsmann, Sony BMG, and Viacom.
Mr. Khan, who is of Pakistani origin grew up in Kuwait and is now settled in the US , provides us with insights on how the digital economy is turning the global media industry on its head, and how the industry is experimenting with tools and technologies to protect and leverage its intangible assets. He also suggests four practical steps for the Muslim world in embracing IP management and participating in the fast evolving global digital economy. The following is our discussion.
How is Broadband Media Evolving?
"Broadband is not just broadband anymore. Last year it was maybe one thing, but it is breaking up as we speak. There's pay-per-view, there's on-demand, there's downloads, there's cellular, there's satellite. For example, Qualcomm recently announced the launch of MediaFLOW; an investment of up to $800 million on a satellite mobile network [not cellular] capable of offering real-time video. This is different than V-Cast in the US , in which you have video coming in from your cellular network."
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Mr. Shahid Khan
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"The Media industry is being dramatically affected by these changes, and not just the way they manage distribution and protection of their assets, but also their overall operations." "For example, there's this whole concept of 'Windowing' in the industry today. For TV, they'll run a new show as an exclusive 'first run,' and after that they get into whole network syndication. Then after that, they have On-Demand service and DVD's. Similarly, for movies, first come theatrical releases, then they do home video release. After home video they do pay-per-view, then they go into networks like HBO's, and then they do broadcast networks."
"Now the media companies are all struggling, given services such as Sprint and iTunes which are now allowing you to download movies. So, they have to manage windowing, scheduling and rights management around that, which by the way has multiple dimensions - geography, language, format, time slots, etc. etc. So when should they do first runs, syndication?; when should they bring it online? (CBS announced that they will be releasing shows directly on their website), when should they bring it to on-demand, DVD or cable?"
"Also, none of these media companies are designed to sell digital; they are designed around physical distribution, tapes to TV stations, or to theaters. So they have to change their distribution capabilities as well."
How is the industry managing protection of digital assets?
"Protection is also becoming digital. There's a whole movement around watermarking and fingerprinting for content protection. This is true for video, audio, text and images. There's no predominant technology yet, but one of the methods of protecting IP is electronic signature, and electronic watermarking which is hidden in the content file and can be tracked. IBM, Sony, and Philips are all trying to do that, but the most common practice around protecting IP are the whole Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems."
"DRM (Digital Rights Management) is the predominant method of managing digital rights today. Let's say you are writing an article that you want to sell. You get copyright protection, but then you define the rules of engagement. As the rights owner, you can determine that this article can be viewed but cannot be downloaded unless purchased. Once purchased, they can download it once, view it unlimited amount of times, but they cannot copy it or forward it to anyone. Then these digital rights management systems', take those rules and wrap them up in a DRM wrapper that surrounds the actual content. Now say somebody downloads it for $10.99 or $2 from Amazon, it will have the DRM wrapper around it where the rules are defined and it will self manage how the buyer can use the content."
"There are various formats that support DRM today. For example, PDF's now are DRM enabled. The PDF Reader translates and gives those PDF's with DRM wrapper and gives appropriate permissions to the reader. Similarly, Apple has its own DRM format. DRM today is prominent in the US and Europe, while China & India are experimenting."
What about Enforcement?
"In the US , Grokster was a historic case which has fundamentally changed enforcement. ( Grokster was a service for peer-to-peer file sharing across any computer connected on the internet. It has been estimated that 90% of files shared on Grokster were downloaded illegally .) The ruling essentially set the precedent that anyone providing a tool which allows people to download assets illegally is also liable. A previous case on Napster first pursued a mass campaign against illegal download of music, and then they started arresting people who were downloading. But the Grokster case has fundamentally shut down the tools which allow for illegal downloading."
"These kinds of illegal downloading services are happening elsewhere in the Muslim world as well. The US is big enough and contained where a ruling can have a major affect. But in our part of the world, each country is different, so there has to be some kind of international or regional framework in which they operate under."Why are IP rights important to the Muslim World? "Without Intellectual Property Rights protection, the whole development of intellectual property is going to diminish. In terms of money and energy invested in creating IP, if the creators are doing it to generate value for themselves and if they don't get that value, then they are going to get discouraged."
"Some people do it for free, like open source software, blogs, free website--and that is fine since that's the term set by the author. But then there are companies, like Microsoft, GEO TV ( Pakistan ), Arab News, etc. who spend millions of dollars or rupees to derive monetary value out of it. Their investments support the livelihood of their employees who have worked hard in developing those assets. Just because there is no hard asset, doesn't mean there is no value associated with it. If they want to sell their property as a download, then it's their right to do so. If you don't respect it, then you are stealing and you are kicking on their right to make a living. It all comes down to the rights of the creator of the content."
"Also, disregard for IP rights effects exposure to the latest and greatest tools. Given that digital assets can now track geographies as well, whole sets of countries can be blocked if deemed to be violators of IP protection. This could deprive those countries with leading edge technologies and tools."
What are the IP Related Challenges for the Muslim World?
"First, it's important to note that the digital economy has no geographies and their really are no boundaries. I can purchase music from Pakistan in US when I couldn't have done that in the past. So the rules need to apply to the international community on a cross-country basis."
"The fundamental issue in our part of the world is awareness. People don't know that they are actually stealing. That's the biggest issue. "
"The second issue is legislation; countries need to pass laws around emerging formats and emerging methods of IP."
"Third is enforcement. The Governments need to be clear which authority does the enforcement fall under. If it is the local police or a new authority then these professionals need to be trained on how to handle such violations."
"The last piece is adopting earlier mentioned technologies."
What about the argument that counterfeit software actually helps progress in developing countries? "IP violations mostly manifest around entertainment content. In those, there is no dire need that someone has to consume those products for development purposes? So first, there has to be strong protection against entertainment content."
"In education and technology tools, if I am Government of Pakistan or Indonesia , and I know that certain software products in my country are actually working for the betterment of my country, I would still not compromise a legal framework for enforcing IP rights. I would however go back to many of these software companies such as Microsoft and negotiate certain better deals or some kind of exception to the rule. Alternatively, the Government could create an agency that provides subsidized software to select educational and other institutions." What role can Open Source software play for developing countries?
"Open Source is a big blessing for these countries. One, you get access to every key productivity tool out there with minimal investment. Second, it's an opportunity for you to really show what you are made up of. You can use those frameworks and really develop stuff that can be cutting edge, leading edge."
"We should abandon the stealing and begging attitude and we should strongly go after Open Source. Every major category of software that is used globally is now available in some open source format."
"Again, awareness is the key issue."
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* Shahid Khan is a Partner at Interactive Broadband Consulting Group (IBB), LLC, a consulting firm advising top management in the broadband-related sectors of cable, mobile, technology and digital media. Shahid is an acclaimed thought leader, who has been focused on the Digital Media and eBusiness for more than a decade, as well as on how disruptive technologies such as internet, broadband, IP and mobile are impacting the Media Industry. Over the course of his career, Shahid has served leading Media firms including Bertelsmann, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group, Thomson, Viacom and the RIAA. |
