Anti-piracy group aims to educate about online content

Arts + Labs seeking funding for programs

By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 9/30/2008

SEPT. 30 | BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.—New anti-piracy advocacy group Arts + Labs has big ideas but so far few specifics on how it plans to encourage consumers to enjoy online entertainment legally.

Overall, Arts + Labs hopes to launch educational programs that highlight existing legal sites, such as Hulu.com and MySpace Music. But first, the group needs to raise money.

Over the next four months, Arts + Labs will meet with major entertainment and Internet companies to score financial support, Arts + Labs officials told reporters at a media breakfast here Monday.

“The biggest part is recruiting partners—we don’t know our budget now,” said co-chair Mark McKinnon, a former songwriter and newspaper editor. “We can raise money through their networks, and there will be educational opportunities there.”

Arts + Labs has already garnered backing from a number of content and technology companies, such as its members AT&T, Viacom, NBC Universal, Cisco, Microsoft and the Songwriters Guild of America.

McKinnon and other Arts + Labs executives, including former White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry, said they have discussed a school tour to promote the importance of legal online entertainment, modeled on safe-sex campaigns aimed at students.

“Now people understand that [sex] is something where they need to protect themselves, and there was a change in culture,” McCurry said. “’Net pollution can destroy [online entertainment]. It can be that same kind of a threat.”

He noted that there are 100,000 catalogued viruses, and that 80% of people’s e-mail is spam. During the first quarter of 2008, there were 27,000 phishing scams, which involves e-mail that looks valid but actually aims to steal personal information.

Although still at the drawing board with its anti-piracy strategies, Arts + Labs is confident it can rally people around legal downloading and streaming sites. The organization believes education will be a more effective solution than efforts focusing on punishing consumers through the courts.

Arts + Labs “wants to create a culture where people enjoy [online media] the right way and the safe way,” said McCurry. “This isn’t a punitive way, which has been done in the past.”