Unit 12. Intellectual Property Rights and Music Piracy

Lead-in

Exercise 1. Starting up:

1. What do you know about piracy?

2. Do you think that music belongs to everybody or music copyrights should be strictly observed?

Listening

Exercise 2. Listen to the report on music piracy and say what has happened to music sales over the past decade and how music bands have suffered from the music piracy (“The Economist”, November 14^th 2009).

Exercise 3. Listen to the report again and complete the following statements:

1. While it is by no means over, the struggle against music piracy is going better than at any point since the appearance of Napster, a file-sharing service, __________ ago.

2. In many countries music sales to consumers have fallen by more than ______.

3. Even Apple's popular digital iTunes store is little more than a niche service: fully _________of down­loads are illegal.

4. But by reducing the money available to sign and tout new artists, file-sharing has made it harder for _____________ to become established.

Vocabulary and Reading

Exercise 4. You are going to read the report on the problem of music piracy. Match the English phrases with their Russian equivalents:

1. illegal downloads	незаконное скачивание
2. in decline	подсудимый, ответчик
3. a defendant	приобретать движущую силу
4. to discourage piracy	дифференцированные ответные действия
5. to suffer severely	неудовлетворенный спрос
6. an unmet demand	жестокий
7. to be spared the ads	файловый хостинг
8. to gain momentum	противодействовать пиратству
9. to ratchet up the pressure	обходиться без рекламы
10. a graduated-response	серьезно пострадать от чего-л
11. file-sharing service	в состоянии упадка
12. brutal	усиливать давление

Exercise 5. Read the report on music piracy and decide if the following statements are true (T) or false (F):

1. Napster was an illegal file-sharing service that was shut down by the courts.

2. Online music piracy cannot be in decline.

3. For most of the past decade the music industry focused on litigation to try to prevent piracy.

4. Spotify offers free, advertising-supported streams.

5. The recorded-music industry will disappear soon.

6. Graduated-response laws were introduced earlier this year in China and South Korea.

How to sink pirates

The decline of music piracy holds lessons for other industries

You open a window on your computer's screen. You type in the name of a cheesy song from the 1980s. A list of results appears. You double-click on one of them, and within a few seconds the song is playing. This is what it was like to use Napster a decade ago; and it is also how Spotify, another free online-music service, works today. The difference? Napster was an il­legal file-sharing service that was shut down by the courts. Spotify, by contrast, is an entirely legal, free service supported by advertising. This shows how much things have changed in the world of online music in the past decade. It also explains why online music piracy may at last be in decline.

For most of the past decade the music industry focused on litigation to try to prevent piracy. Over the years the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has accused 18,000 internet users of engaging in illegal file-sharing. Most of them settled, though two cases went to court this year. In both cases the defendants (a single mother and a student) lost and were ordered to pay damages (of $1.92m and $675,000 respectively). But the industry has realised that such cases encourage the publication of embarrassing headlines more than they discourage piracy, for as each network was shut down, another would sprout in its place.

Yet as piracy flourished on illegal networks, legal alterna­tives also started to appear. Apple launched its iTunes Music Store, offering downloads at $0.99 per track, in 2003. Many others have followed, including a new, above-board version of Napster. And in the past two years new music sites and ser­vices have proliferated. Spotify offers free, advertising-sup­ported streams; paying customers are spared the ads and can use the service on smart-phones. Nokia's Comes With Music scheme includes a year's unlimited downloads in the price of some mobile phones, TDC, a Danish telecoms operator, bun­dles access to a music service with its broadband packages.

All of these different, legal music services offer the “celestial jukebox” – whatever you want, right away, from the Internet – that made Napster so compelling when it appeared on the scene. True, revenue from these services will be less than from CD sales, but it is much better than nothing. The recorded-music industry will get smaller-but it will not disappear.

That is because there is growing evidence that this plethora of new services adds up to an attractive alternative to piracy for many. In June a poll of Swedish users of file-sharing software found that 60% had cut back or stopped us­ing it; of those, half had switched to advertising-supported streaming services like Spotify. In Denmark, over 40% of sub­scribers to TDC's broadband-plus-music package also said they were making fewer illegal downloads as a result. In a Brit­ish poll published in July, 17% of consumers said they used file-sharing services, down from 22% in December 2007. Music ex­ecutives reckon people are moving from file-sharing networks to Spotify, though they may continue to download some music illegally.

But mainly carrots

To be sure, the carrots of more attractive legal services are being accompanied by innovative forms of stick. In particular, a new approach called "graduated response" is gaining mo­mentum. As its name indicates, it involves ratcheting up the pressure on users of file-sharing software by sending them warnings by e-mail and letter and then cutting off or throttling their internet access if they fail to respond after three requests. Graduated-response laws were introduced earlier this year in Taiwan and South Korea, and were enacted in France last month. Other countries are expected to follow suit.

Yet in Britain music file-sharing seems to be in decline even though a graduated-response law has yet to be introduced. The country also boasts one of the broadest selections of legal music services: Spotify and Comes With Music were both launched there before most other countries, and two of Brit­ain's biggest internet-service providers have borrowed TDC's bundled-music model. This suggests that when it comes to dis­couraging music piracy, carrots may in fact be more important than sticks.

All of this offers a lesson for other types of media, such as films and video games. Piracy thrives because it satisfies an unmet demand. The best way to discourage it is to offer a di­verse range of attractive, legal alternatives. The music industry has taken a decade to work this out, but it has now done so. Other industries should benefit from its experience – and follow its example.

(“The Economist”, November 14^th 2009, pages 16-18)

Exercise 6. Comprehension check. Answer the following questions:

1. What are Napster and Spotify? What are the differences between them?

2. What were the music industry steps to prevent piracy?

3. What does its iTunes Music Store offer?

4. What do Spotify, TDC and Nokia's offer their customers?

5. What did a poll of Swedish users of file-sharing software find?

6. What does a graduated-response law imply?

Exercise 7. Study the report again (Exercise 5) and find the adequate English equivalents of the following words and phrases: 1) судебный процесс; 2) пускать ростки; 3) процветать (2 слова); 4) разрастаться; 5) честный, открытый; 6) доход; 7) изобилие; 8) опрос; 9) полагать; 10) приманки («пряники»); 11) «кнуты»; 12) разрабатывать; 13) извлекать пользу.

Exercise 8. Translate the following sentences into English using the target vocabulary (Exercises 4, 7):

1. Ответчик проиграл судебный процесс.

2. Обычно «пряники» действуют быстрее и лучше, чем «кнуты».

3. Противодействовать музыкальному пиратству можно дифференцированными ответными действиями.

4. Неудовлетворенный спрос населения способствует процветанию пиратства.

5. Если тебе нужна какая-нибудь попсовая песня, ты можешь найти ее в Интернете, однако, незаконное скачивание может привести тебя на скамью подсудимых.

6. Последний опрос показал, что доходы россиян растут.

Exercise 9. Paraphrase the following sentences using the target vocabulary (Exercises 4, 7):

1. Self-help groups have rapidly spread all over London.

2. Office blocks seem to be growing everywhere.

3. The survey required a lot of paperwork.

4. I thought you said you had completely planned everything.

5. Who gains by it?

Speaking

Exercise 10. Work in groups of three or four. Discuss the pros and cons of downloading music, movies and software programmes using your target vocabulary (Exercises 4 and 7).

Exercise 11. Free discussion.

a) Answer the following questions. Give your opinion and justify it. Think of some more questions to discuss.

1) Most of you must have downloaded music a number of times. But have you ever thought of the other side of downloading music/films? Does it have a negative effect on the music/film industry? Does it, in some way affect the earnings of the musicians/actors?

2) Do you think that such methods as “graduated response” can really influence people and put them off free downloading music and films?

b) Write down a short summary based on the results of the discussion.

Exercise 12. Role play “Government Meeting on the Problem of Music Piracy”.

Turn to page 116 to choose your role and get ready to present it.