Geoblocking, Copyright Laws Said Stymieing Digital Single Market

Geoblocking of content across borders is a major obstacle to a digital single market, said Andrus Ansip, European Commission vice president responsible for the DSM. It's a "lose-lose" situation when consumers want to access and pay for creative content but producers won't make it available, he said at the webcast #Digital4EU stakeholder forum in Brussels. Other key impediments to the DSM include outdated copyright laws, fragmentation of 28 different sets of laws and the fear of failure, speakers said Tuesday.

Geoblocking is a "serious and common barrier, as well as extremely frustrating," Ansip said. He cited the BBC website, which bars downloading or streaming of its iPlayer TV shows outside the U.K. "In the offline world, this would be called discrimination. In the online world, it happens every day," he said. The EC will work on the question of how to spur more European startups, but it's not that hard to create them now, he said. The problem is market fragmentation by different consumer rights, cybersecurity, data protection and other rules as well as blocking, he said. Creators think blocking protects them, but it's actually one reason European innovators move to the U.S., he said. There are reports that millions of Chinese and many thousands of Canadians watch Netflix via virtual private networks, Ansip said. If companies aren't willing to make their content available, people will find other ways to access it, he said.

Another key issue is how to create an environment that encourages investment in telecom infrastructure, Telefónica Chief Policy Officer Enrique Medina Malo said. He called for legal certainty and weighing the risks versus rewards. Companies building infrastructure aren't relying on their past monopoly privileges, so authorities should acknowledge that the telecom sector is liberalized and stop forcing infrastructure providers to let rivals ride on their networks, he said. It's time to "start the discussion" about consolidation of the telecom sector, which already has happened in the U.S., said European Parliament member Michal Boni, of the European People's Party and Poland.

There must be more investment in upcoming startups, said Kaya Taner, a board member of the Applications Developers Alliance and CEO of AppLift, a mobile games marketing platform. American venture capitalists are better at risk-taking than Europeans, he said. Guaranteeing innovation means moving to the scenario where there's "no stigma attached to failure," he said.

One debate is whether technology is a threat or opportunity for copyright rights, speakers said. Consumers have never had so much choice of affordable, accessible content, said European Publishers Council (EPC) Executive Director Angela Mills Wade. Machines can communicate in nanoseconds on the Internet, so copyright can use the same sorts of communications, she said. The EPC and others in the Linked Content Coalition are testing a rights information infrastructure, Mills said. They've "stepped aside from the debate" over copyright law and looked for technical solutions, she said. There must be a balance between technology and copyright philosophy, said Alan Graham, co-founder of One Click License, a licensing engine for all forms of digital content.

The EC will release draft copyright reform legislation by midyear, Digital Economy & Society Commissioner Günther Oettinger said. The commission is trying to be practical about reform, targeting its actions to specific issues it believes it can solve, Roberto Viola, EC Directorate General CONNECT deputy director general said. Technology is helping the EC narrow its focus, he said. Asked how the commission will ensure its copyright system is agile, he said it will be a challenge, but that the same is true of all high-tech areas such as net neutrality, e-commerce and telecom law. It's not acceptable to not modernize copyright rules, he said.

The EC Monday released a new digital economy and society index that shows how each EU country stacks up on connectivity, Internet skills, the use of online activities and the development of digital technologies and public services. The commission said it will unveil its DSM strategy in May.

Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and Finland topped the EC digital index, with Romania coming last. Other findings included that: (1) most Europeans use the Internet regularly and are eager to access audiovisual content; (2) small and mid-sized businesses face e-commerce barriers, with only 15 percent selling online; and (3) digital public services are a reality in some countries but almost nonexistent in others.