The old guard fights back
When the going gets… Well things are more than tough for many, and the business re-engineering that the inexorable rise of digital has brought to many or most business sectors is often being hastened by the recession.
In the past 24 hours, we’ve seen the latest bout in the long-running feud between
the aged (but beautifully preserved)
L’Orea
l (in the Euro corner, representing the old guard, nee 1909) squaring up to the fresh-faced preppy (in the US corner, born 1995) that is
eBay, in London’s High Court.
A few hours later, the UK awoke this morning to the news that YouTube has “pulled thousands of music videos from its website after failing to agree terms with the UK’s main songwriters’ collection society”.
These two spats, though different in the way they are being fought out, have a lot in common. In both instances, the ‘traditional’ owners of IP see their brands or content being monetised by others to build huge businesses, with little of none of the commercial benefits coming to the rights owner.
L’Oreal has won a couple of cases against eBay in the French courts, and there’s little doubt these skirmishes will continue to flare up around the world for years to come. But the eBay / Google / YouTube etc. genii are out of their bottles now, and there’s no way of putting them back in.
There are implications for private individuals’ use of copyrighted material swimming around here also, so perh
aps I shouldn’t have ‘borrowed’ the logos that add a dash of colour (though not legitimacy…) to this post.
I’m not an IP lawyer (did you spot that?), but I predict there will be some shifts in the law to take account of the new digital landscape - some liberalisations (borrow my brand if you want, but respect it, and if you make some money, make a contribution); but perhaps, conversely, some increased controls (making it harder for producers of counterfeit luxury goods brands to operate).
