Music Industry Lobbying Government To Fight Google

The Australian music industry has begun lobbying the Liberal Government for stronger online copyright laws as the global recorded music lobby looks to mobilise governments to influence Google.

They feel the search engine giant is denying artists and labels revenue by providing a channel to illegal downloads.

Speaking at the ARIA Week Masterclass event today, ARIA Chairman and Sony boss Denis Handlin said that pirated music continues to be the biggest burden on the music industry and ARIA are “looking forward to working with the new government, who we've already had brilliant meetings with.”

With the backing of the International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry [IFPI] ARIA is hoping that stronger copyright legislation will force internet service providers and search engines to “move households away from illegal downloading,” as Handlin put it.

Speaking to theMusic.com.au today IFPI's CEO Frances Moore said that they've had a number of meetings with Google to remove illegal downloads from their search results, but they are now focusing their attentions on governments around the world to introduce legislation that would force them to cooperate.

“We've said to Google, help us to prioritise the legal [results]. And they've said to us, 'Send us the [search] notifications and we'll see if we can perhaps demote the illegal'… Put it this way, it won't be long before we're near the hundred millions of notifications sent to them, but we don't see much. And they're in a position to do so much… There will be a point where it will take the government."

She continued, “We'll keep on. The government are getting onto [Google] about child pornography and we'll keep on saying, 'This stuff's illegal, you guys should be working with us to clean this up'… we've given them time to work with us, but they're just holding back.”

Moore added that in a day of meetings, “I met [New South Wales Premier Barry] O'Farrell yesterday and he really has got a vision about he wants for New South Wales… What we want from politicians is the environment for the businesses to survive. It's a basic requisite, why should we have to compete with our own product? How many other industries have to compete with their own product?”

Moore also indicated that Attorney General George Brandis has shown a “deep understanding” of copyright in early dialogues.

Earlier this year the IFPI reported the industry's first growth since 1999 and during her keynote today said, “What industry would be celebrating 0.3 percent growth? But after 13 years we needed some good news.”

IFPI – and therefore Moore – have in the past been branded as the 'worst enemy' of internet downloaders by trying to impose penalties and enforcements, but she doesn't feel like they are the 'music grinch'.

“Our opponents often try very hard to portray us that way – they very often try to take on the 'cool' role and portray us as the ones who are trying to protect the past. It's a lobbying strategy they're using.

“The truth is this is an industry that has really fought over the last couple of years. When your industry is wiped out [by] 40 percent because of piracy, you have a problem.”