Silverchair Manager On Piracy: 'We Took 10 Years To Dig A Hole That Will Take 20 Years To Fill'

The ongoing saga surrounding anti-piracy measures in Australia won't be going anywhere soon, if recent comments from music-industry veteran John Watson are any indication, after the renowned Aussie manager told Fairfax that the creative industries have been left to be "punished for the sins of our fathers" with respect to illegal downloading.

Watson — who counts among his clientele esteemed acts such as Silverchair (and frontman Daniel Johns), Gotye and Cold Chisel — was speaking in response to Labor MP Ed Husic, who had previously spoken to Fairfax on the issue, and explained that the industry's knee-jerk litigation against early file-sharing services such as Napster evidently backfired, and creators had suffered in the wake of the standoffish response.

"We are being punished for the sins of our fathers a little bit; it was an unfortunate chapter," Watson told Fairfax.

"To sue consumers, rather than educate, that lost period of five to 10 years way back when, I think, set a narrative which has been incredibly damag[ing] for artists and everyone on the creative side. We took 10 years to dig a hole that will take 20 years to fill."

In his response, Watson disagrees with Husic's assertion that piracy is largely driven by factors such as affordability, accessibility and flexibility and says that, even if it is, it is impossible for the industry to match pirates on those criteria, reasoning that the theory doesn't apply in a compromised economy.

"Obviously markets usually drive out inefficiencies and the only players left standing are typically those who adopt best practice," Watson said. "However, that theory is based on the assumption that price is a reliable indicator of value, and that key assumption breaks down when piracy distorts a market."

Another assumption of which Watson appears sceptical is the notion that the introduction of streaming services is key to reducing piracy rates, after Husic had pointed out that the introduction of Spotify had lowered incidences of illegal downloading by 20%, with similar projections expected for Netflix's first years in Australia.

However, Watson does not appear convinced that solution is working — at least, not quickly enough.

Said Watson: "We have already enacted your 'solution' and yet at least 80% of our problem remains.

"Surely it is therefore inarguable that other solutions are also needed in addition to the quicker and more affordable supply we now provide to consumers." 

Despite this, backing the sentiments offered by APRA/AMCOS chief executive Brett Cottle last week, Watson says the currently debated introduction of site-blocking injunctions to deter illegal downloading are "a nudge to move back into behavioural economics".

"They're a nudge toward legal and moral behaviour," he said.    

However, Laurie Patton, the chief executive of online-advocacy group The Internet Society Of Australia, told theMusic.com.au today in a statement that the Society does not believe that such measures are designed with consumers, their behaviour or their rights in mind.

"It needs to be understood that this proposed 'site-blocking' legislation is not designed to stop music pirating; it is aimed squarely at protecting the video market, where Australians have demonstrably been paying more than they would without geoblocking," Patton said.

"We believe that there are more appropriate ways to deal with piracy than trying to shut down overseas websites. History says they will simply reappear under a new name or under a new IP address."

A recent example of exactly that chain of events is the fresh demise of (illegitimate) free-music-streaming service Grooveshark, which recently lost its fight against mounting legal battles and was forced offline before a clone, Grooveshark.io, found its way onto the internet within a matter of days. Prior to that, favoured torrent haunt The Pirate Bay also fell victim to raids by authorities, only to later resurface at a domain hosted in Costa Rica.

For Patton and The Internet Society, there's a clear point of lag in Australian services, even with the slightly increased sense of affordability and flexibility they afford — namely, the third crucial tentpole of accessibility, a concern that Patton says is within the government's power to change.

"We are asking the government to use the Transpacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) to force providers to make content available in Australia at the same time as it is released overseas, and at comparable prices," Patton said.

"It is not our role to propose alternative solutions — that's for others. But we firmly believe that the site-blocking legislation will not stop piracy, while risking unintended consequences such as the inadvertent blocking of innocent websites."