Illegal File-Sharing Only Option For Some, Says EC

The European Commission has said that the lack of a single digital market in Europe is boosting illegal file-sharing in the region, as in some countries there are few legal options for downloading content.

Speaking this week in a video conference with EU Telecoms and Information Society Ministers, European Commission vice-president for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes said that the failure of governments and content producers to agree on common standards and platforms across Europe was directly contributing to illegal file-sharing.

Kroes pointed to the much larger size of the legal download market in the US as a sign that EU was behind when it comes to creating legal platforms for users to download music.

Europe’s Internet Is Not Borderless

“While the Internet is borderless, Europe’s online markets are not,” said Kroes. “It is often easier to buy something from a US website than from the next-door country in Europe. Often you cannot buy it at all within Europe.”

While governments in the UK and France have been trying to clamp-down on illegal file-sharing with legislation such as the Digital Economy Act, passed into UK law last week, Kroes appeared to point the blame at governments and content providers for excerbating the problem.

“One result is that the US market for online music is five times bigger than Europe’s,” she said. “Another result is that for the moment one could almost say that the only existing Digital Single Market for audiovisual material is the illegal one.”

Kroes reinterated the need to break down barriers to free trade in Europe which are preventing consumers from accessing legal platforms such as iTunes and Spotify.  “I am convinced that creating the legal Digital Single Market will lead to a wealth of options available to citizens,” she said. “This will strike a blow against piracy to the benefit of authors and artists, and without endangering the open architecture that is essential for the Internet’s utility. It is obviously common sense that we fix problems like this.”

Digital Economy Act Rushed Through

The UK’s controversial Digial Economy Act received Royal assent last week despite widespread opposition from privacy groups and companies including BT and TalkTalk. Critics were particularly incensed by the fact the Act appeared to have been rushed through Parliament in the so-called wash-up period before the election.

The European commissioner’s speech was designed to higlight the importance of the European Digital Agenda – part of the European Commission’s Europe 2020 strategy, which outlines how Europe should look to develop over the next ten years, including issues such as sustainability and smart infrastructure.

In the wide-ranging speech, Kroes laid out a whole series of objectives and concerns when it comes to Europe’s digital development:

1. Lack of investment in networks: more needs to be done to facilitate current investment in the new fast Internet networks that will be the centre of a competitive and inclusive future economy.

2. Fragmented digital markets: Europe is still a patchwork of national online markets even though the problems are fixable.

3. Lack of skills: Europe is suffering from a growing professional ICT skills shortage and a digital literacy deficit. These failings are excluding many citizens from the digital society and economy and are holding back the out-sized contribution ICT use can make to productivity and growth – ICTs already account for 50 percent of all European productivity growth.

4. Fragmented answers to societal challenges: Europe misses out on much of the potential of ICT because it does not give common answers to challenges facing society (such as the ageing population, rising health costs, climate change).

5. Rising cybercrime and low trust: Internet users will not engage in ever more sophisticated online activities, unless they feel confident their privacy is secured and they can fully rely upon their networks. Europe must address the new forms of cybercrime and ensure the resilience of its IT systems and networks.

6. Insufficient research and innovation efforts: Europe continues to under-invest and fails to convert intellectual advantage of research into the competitive advantage of market-based innovations. Our priority has to be not only attracting more investment, but building bridges between the ideas and the markets for them.

7. Lack of interoperability: Europe does not yet reap the maximum benefit from interoperability. Weaknesses in standard-setting, public procurement and coordination prevent digital services and devices used by Europeans from working together as well as they should.