Yesterday the UK's high court forced BT to block access for its customers to Newzbin2 - a file sharing site which has become a favourite for people who want to share films illegally.
I can imagine the scene in Hollywood at the moment. Everyone jumping and cheering. Banners everywhere. Steven Spielberg declaring a new public holiday to rival the 4th July. All the big names in the film industry already coming together to make a new blockbuster about it - they could call it "Saving Private Film Makers" or "Titanic Profits".
But of course that isn't happening. And not just because of the size of the UK film market.
Hollywood is taking on an enemy who is much more agile than it can ever be. It takes months of legal wrangling to get a site blocked. But the site's owners can create a new one almost instantaneously. It might take a while the new site to get a following as big as the original - it could even take a whole 2 hours - but it won't get rid of file sharing forever.
Hollywood need a new tactic and they should look towards the music industry. Illegally downloading music was a big problem 10 years ago. But then companies like Apple came along and made itsimple to download music for a reasonable price. If film companies could do the same, maybe setting the charge at £0.99, they could open up a new revenue stream and maybe come to embrace the internet. Of course people could still download films for free but those with a chronic addiction to free media are never going to be cured, and the film studios shouldn't think that making them go cold turkey will chage anything. But enough people will switch over to legal downloading to give the film studios a tidy profit.
Unfortunately I get the feeling that it will be a while yet before they can see past the epic storyline they are creating for themselves... *sigh*
Maybe is cinema prices weren't so outrageous people would be happier to pay.. The music industry eased the illegal download problem by charging reasonable prices.
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