THEFT IS THEFT?

Theft is theft. Theft is theft. The refrain ran like an unrelenting heavy metal riff throughout the Conference On Piracy organised by the Irish Recorded Music Association in Dublin s Herbert Park Hotel recently. And it s certainly a hard argument to refute. Theft is theft, isn t it?
Purchasers of pirated music recordings, some of which are believed to be manufactured by operators with paramilitary connections, are stealing from the copyright holders, the legitimate producers and the artists themselves every time they buy one. Today it is estimated that one in every five recordings sold is a pirated copy, and the problem is rapidly growing. Yes, theft is theft.
350 million pirated music recordings are sold every year. In China, there could be anything up to 50 factories manufacturing pirated recordings, some of which sell on the streets of Beijing for #1 sterling.
In Ireland, according to IRMA Director General Dick Doyle, 300,000 pirated units are sold annually, mainly cassettes. The victims of such piracy also include legitimate retailers, the Government (through loss of taxes) and the general public who are often buying a sub-standard product.
Nic Garnett, Director General of IFPI worldwide, does not accept the view that the high costs of CDs encourages purchases. The profits made from CDs, he claimed, are re-invested in new artists, although why this does not apply to cassettes has never been explained. But, as Garnett argued, theft of any product can hardly be justified on the basis of cost anyway. Theft is theft, no matter what price.
In a rather alarmist address, Polygram s Irish chief Paul Keogh admitted that the Irish Music Industry is in serious trouble and that unless we get adequate laws or supportive policies from the Government, there will be no record industry in Ireland in seven years time. The decline, he believes, will manifest itself most obviously in job losses and a lack of investment by major labels in Irish talent.
Keogh also believes that by the time the Government introduces its new copyright bill it will be too late and already obsolete anyway. He slammed Bord Failte, claiming that the success of Irish artists abroad, with U2 and The Cranberries notching up sales of over 100 million between them, had done more for the image of Ireland than all of Bord Failte s pictures of green fields .
But wait. Theft may be theft, but I could not resist the impure thought that the general public might have more sympathy for the industry s case if an influential insider like Keogh did not indicate such a casual indifference to impending job losses.
The Minister For Labour, Trade and Consumer Affairs, Tom Kitt, made the expected vacuous speech peppered with a staid repertoire of meaningless clichis and buzzwords ( commitment , priority , assurances , etc) all signifying nothing. In short, Mr Kitt spoke, then he finished his speech and left, probably to make the same pointless speech somewhere else. And Irish politicians wonder why they are an increasingly derided breed!
Perhaps some enterprising record company could make a recording of the Minister reading, say, a list of telephone numbers or CD catalogue numbers. It could then be played at all similar functions, saving the Minister and others a lot of unnecessary inconvenience. (Legitimate copies only, of course.)
vast army
What the Minister did not say to the conference was far more significant than anything he actually did say. Apart from vaguely suggesting that the copyright act might see the light of day earlier than Paul Keogh s forecast, he brought not one single unequivocal guarantee to do anything specific to help the Irish music industry. Even more revealing, he made no mention of the Music Board which Fianna Fail, in their pre-election manifesto, had promised to bring in immediately after taking office.
Paul Keogh later claimed that the Government is going cold on the idea of the Music Board, and that the Minister For The Arts, Sile de Valera, is not at all keen on the proposal. So much for the promises of politicians. If any normal trading organisation fudged the issue to the public in the same way they would probably be up before the beak. Theft is theft? Not if you re a politician, it seems.
We also heard of the difficulties the industry faces in obtaining warrants to raid the premises of suspected pirates, and the revelation of one court judge who seems to have more sympathy with the suspected thieves than he has with their victims, so much so that IRMA endeavours to have applications heard when he is not sitting. Getting the Director Of Public Prosecutions, Eamonn Barnes, to proceed with prosecutions seems to be even more difficult.
Even when prosecutions against pirates are proceeded with, the miniscule fines, Garnett reckoned, are nonchalantly written off by the pirates as mere operating expenses. Could this by any chance be the same prosecution system that has hounded citizens out of business (and sometimes out of the country) for owing the VAT man a few hundred pounds? Surely not! Theft is theft, isn t it?
Later, BMG boss Freddie Middleton explained how a vast array of bootleg products are on sale openly on Grafton Street, but the sellers can easily spot the cops coming and make a quick exit stage left. The fact that the cops wear their full boys in blue regalia on such visits just might have something to do with this.
In short, one could not help suspecting that this Government, and the establishment that supports it, has not the slightest interest in an industry which has done more for Ireland than the combined efforts of all of our Governments since the birth of the state.
Put simply, piracy costs the Irish music industry an estimated #2m annually and the Government has no plans to do anything about it. In effect they are saying, Theft is okay, really, so fire ahead, we don t mind. But then the McCracken tribunal proved as much anyway.
On the other hand, maybe theft is theft, whether it s pirated tapes or gathering votes under false pretences.