Articles/Papers of Interest

Just press print: why the rise of Additive Manufacturing might just change the music industry...

The music industry has been one of very few businesses to really take on the copyright wars, or “copyfight,” as some like to call it, over the past 13 years. The film industry and certain sectors within the sporting world (primarily FIFA) have taken to lobbying against IP theft when it suits them, but it’s the music industry that has been at the forefront of the so-called ‘battle’.

This was certainly evident at the World Copyright Summit in Brussels earlier this month. While organisers made a valiant and worthwhile attempt at involving figureheads from an array of creative sectors, the arguments invariably came back to the piracy woes experienced by music industry: how it has suffered; what is has attempted to do to combat it and what might happen going forward.

Even heavyweight policy makers; the EC’s Neelie Kroes and Michel Barnier and the US IP Office representative Victoria Espinel made constant references to the music industry; they talked of collective rights management; music streaming services; downloading etc. And, naturally, they all revealed the next steps they will take to protect IP rights online. For the EC, these include two draft directives on the management of collection societies and the protection of IP, while the US is focusing on three strands: 1) making sure there are robust IP laws 2) engaging the private sector, and creating voluntary solutions 3) educating consumers on the importance of IP (the US government is actually ploughing significant amounts of cash in to achieve this).

So, it seems law and policy makers are making strident attempts to protect IP rights and grow a solid, global market, but is it ever really going to work? You only have to look at the slow, almost painful implementation of the Digital Economy Act in the UK to realise that these processes provide no quick-fix solution.

So how does ‘additive manufacturing’ (AM) fit in amongst this talk of draft directives and “voluntary solutions”? To save you Googling it, AM will, in the near future, allow you to call up a blueprint for an object, or piece of machinery online (a violin, a spare part for your car, a lampshade) and in the corner of your room, another machine (much like a printer) will kick into life and produce the item in question. If you’re not convinced as to the validity of AM, check out this article in the Economist.

The implications of AM are almost too huge to fathom right now – however, we can be sure of one thing: the companies and individuals designing the blueprints for the personalised, home-based manufacturing of these products will not take kindly to IP theft.

This is the problem the music industry has had so far: until very recently no-one outside of the business was prepared to take music IP theft that seriously, despite lobbying efforts. Music is seen as secondary to, say, vehicle parts manufacturing. Once design companies and manufacturers see their IP rights disappear online, the battle for stronger policy, more strident laws and respect for copyright will, all of a sudden, be seen in a very different light.

Nicola Slade