Why is James Murdoch so angry? - Background Briefing - ABC Radio N... http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/why-... WHY IS JAMES MURDOCH SO ANGRY? Download audioshow transcript Broadcast:Sunday 31 October 2010 9:00AM The stars have not been in alignment for the Murdoch empire: a phone hacking scandal threatens its influence in British politics, people won't pay for online content, the pirates have the best digital maps, and the British Library wants to give information away for free. Reporter Stan Correy Image: James Murdoch arriving for work in east London, November 23, 2011. (AFP: Warren Allott) View comments (18) FacebookTwi tter DeliciousRedditDiggEmail what are these? Transcript Hide Centurion: Caesar!!! Caesar: Who will fight with me? Who will fight with me? Will you fight for me? MUSIC Stan Correy: They're some lines from the film Battle of Alesia, where Julius Caesar is savaging the Gauls in a fight over what is now called France. Interestingly, early this year Rupert Murdoch invested over $30-million into his Project Alesia, to get control of a different kind of territory: Cyberspace. But unlike Caesar, Murdoch didn't win his Battle of Alesia. This week, Project Alesia was quietly shelved, but neither Rupert nor his son James have given up. They're still fighting on many fronts - business, politics and legal. And James in particular is angry. Very angry. Centurion: Yar! ! Stan Correy: Hello, I'm Stan Correy and this is Background Briefing on ABC Radio National. One of the problems for News Corp is that there are perhaps too many battles right now. One is about to begin in the British Parliament, there are several court cases, and the unpleasantness around the now infamous phone hacking scandals in the UK doesn't seem to be going away. And it's one reason Rupert Murdoch may not get his way and complete ownership of the digital giant BSkyB of which he already owns 40%. Man: SkyHD, see your HD-ready TV come to life. Sky, leave them better. Stan Correy: But back to that later. First, that phone hacking scandal. It erupted in 2005 when it was revealed a News Corp owned newspaper had been hacking into the phones of Princes William and Harry, and one of Rupert's rival newspapers The Guardian has been following the story closely. Nick Davies: A great many people in public life in Britain are very worried about the influence of Rupert Murdoch. People are worried about Murdoch's influence over more specific things to do with media regulation. We've just been told that the BBC licence fee won't be raised along with inflation, and people fear that that's Murdoch's influence, that he is trying to weaken the BBC so that 1 of 12 5/11/2012 9:56 AM Why is James Murdoch so angry? - Background Briefing - ABC Radio N... http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/why-... his own television outfit, Sky, can have a larger market share. And there are numerous examples, so people are very worried about Murdoch's influence. Stan Correy: In July last year, Guardian journalist Nick Davies exposed new evidence of more widespread hacking. Complicating the concerns about Murdoch's political influence is the allegation of how the phone hacking case was investigated. Nick Davies: It does appear that Members of Parliament who were trying to look at it felt that it wasn't in their interests to take on this powerful newspaper because they might find their private lives being exposed in an embarrassing way. Stan Correy: Investigative reporter with The Guardian newspaper in London, Nick Davies. There are many allegations like this, about the police, the politicians and the newspaper executives and journalists. Several deny it, but two major newspapers, The Guardian in England, and The New York Times, have continued to report it supported by revelations of new evidence. Both The Guardian and The New York Times are fierce competitors of News Corp. We will go into the phone hacking issues in more detail later. In the first instance, a journalist and a private investigator went to jail, but there was more to come. Murdoch's News of the World wasn't the only newspaper on Fleet Street involved in phone hacking. But it's deeply ironic that News Corporation newspapers were at the same time railing against the way the new technologies made it simple for people to 'steal' News Corp content. In the UK, phone hacking is about the theft of personal information, and in European privacy law, personal information is your intellectual property. Moderator: Welcome to the opening ceremony of the inaugural Abu Dhabi Media Summit. APPLAUSE Stan Correy: In March this year, Rupert Murdoch and his son James attended the Media Summit at Abu Dhabi, and Rupert gave the keynote address. James was on a panel of media executives discussing current trends in the media industry. The buzz was all about the new digital devices, marketing and distributing ideas, entertainment and news. James Murdoch: We have a bunch of people in the audience I think who are going to ask some questions, I hope ... Stan Correy: But everyone was asking: How do we get people to pay for all of this? How do we stop them illegally downloading content. There was a question for James Murdoch from an Australian lawyer in the audience, who says it's all too late, that the digital genie is out of the bottle. Tom Levine: My name's Tom Levine; I'm a lawyer here in Abu Dhabi and I'm afraid this is a real lawyer's question. But it comes out of the emphasis on copyright that's been made by quite a lot of people; both Murdoch chairmen made the same point about the protection of content, and there's clearly a great deal of concern about theft of content. But one of the first things I learnt a Law School is that a law that is neither respected nor enforced is not a law at all. And I wonder if there is a risk that that train has already left the station. Because young people don't care that it's illegal to store content. What is it that the media industry can do to increase the respect for not illegally downloading content, because I think that without law the law will be ineffective. Stan Correy: Tom Levine's point was there's no stopping the new world of digital media. Kids and content-makers are living in a new world where content bounces around like squash balls, and ownership is virtually impossible to control. But James Murdoch has no sympathy for this new world, or young people who don't care about illegal downloads. Punish them, he says. James Murdoch: You need governments to play ball. These are property rights. These are basic property rights. There is no difference from going into a store and stealing a packet of pringles or a handbag, and stealing something online. Right? And the idea that there is this new consumer class that somehow are thieves, but we call them consumers, and we say we have to be customer friendly when they're stealing stuff, is lunacy. Right? This is the basic condition for investment and economic growth, is some level of sanctity around property rights, whether it's my house or a movie I've made. OK? And there's no difference that I think it's crazy frankly, people say, Oh, it's different, these kids, you know, these crazy kids.' No, punish them. Stan Correy: James Murdoch at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit in March. News Corp doesn't only talk the talk when it comes to punishing digital piracy, it gets involved in litigation. In the past month, along with other movie studios, News Corp is involved in two legal suits against small online television companies claiming they're illegally streaming News Corp film and television product. And in the online news world, the News Corp company, Dow Jones, is suing a financial news service called Briefing.com Following this action is digital copyright expert from the ANU, Matthew Rimmer. Matthew Rimmer: It's too simplistic for Murdoch to say that News Corporation is merely the innocent victim of piracy by others. News and Murdoch open themselves up to the rejoinder that they themselves have infringed the copyright of others. Stan Correy: Rimmer makes the point that all media copy all the time from other media; it's the nature of the Medusa-headed beast. On the Background Briefing website, we've put up the court documents for Dow Jones and for Briefing.com. So if you're interested 2 of 12 5/11/2012 9:56 AM Why is James Murdoch so angry? - Background Briefing - ABC Radio N... http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/why-... in the finer points of digital copyright law, both documents are worth reading. But here's Matthew Rimmer with a basic summary. Matthew Rimmer: In the current battle between Dow Jones and Briefing.com, Dow Jones has alleged that Briefing.com has infringed its copyright; Briefing.com's rejoinder, amongst other things, is that Dow Jones itself has borrowed a wide range of information, financial and otherwise from Briefing.com, and suggested that this was a case of throwing stones in glass houses, in that Murdoch and News had unclean hands, as it were. So one of their arguments is that they shouldn't be able to bring such an action because they themselves are dependent upon a wide range of other people's copyright material which they use without permission.