18/11/2010

Italian consumers are ready to receive content on electronic devices, but “pirates must be transformed into clients" is what emerged from yesterday’s meeting in Rome on the “The cultural industry and digital technologies: changes in supply and demand”, organized by Confindustria Cultura Italia with associations from the cinema, audiovisual, publishing, music and video games sectors.

This is further backed by 2010 data compiled by the Permanent Observatory on Digital Content, presented during the meeting, including that 40% of Italians over the age of 14 are consistent users of technology at high levels. In other words, there 20 million Italians demanding and consuming digital content and, above all, are wiling to pay for it.

However, particular attention must be paid to protecting cultural content. "The future of film lies both in cinemas and Internet," said Riccardo Tozzi, president of the producers of ANICA. Tozzi affirms that those who download films illegally must be turned into clients, while overcoming the obstacles placed by large distributors and searching for new business model in video on demand. Roberto Guerrazzi, president of Univideo, added: "Digital creates an overlap among fields that must be regulated.”

"Our market is losing revenue, profits are increasingly diminished and with them jobs, all because of piracy and computer and multi-media crime,” says SIAE Director General Gaetano Blandini, who looks favourably upon the imminent initiative of the Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni to enforce copyright along the lines of France’s controversial HADOPI law (see news).

(Translated from Italian)