Medien, Unterhaltung & Kunst

The creative industries are emerging as one of the fastest growing and increasingly important sectors of the world economy. They play an important role in the cultural development of countries and societies, reflecting each country’s culture, by producing and disseminating content that educates, informs, and entertains. With the growth of digital distribution platforms, the demand for high quality digital content is rising and will continue to rise at a greater and greater rate as broadband penetration grows. The new digital global economy, with the Internet as its core distribution structure, represents a huge source of potential growth and employment in the creative industries—a growth that will impact on countries around the world.

UNI MEI believes that policy choices at the national and international level should be made with the intent of supporting the industries, talent and workers that are essential to the creation of a thriving market for professional digital content. Creative works, whether audiovisual or in sound recordings or other written and visual means take years to create and usually large financial investments to come to fruition. These works, “intellectual property”, as they are often called, are what makes the creative industries so valuable both culturally and economically. It is why the protection of intellectual property is the cornerstone of any effort to insure the production of creative content.

However, those works are at risk right now. The enormous growth of unauthorised distribution of copyrighted works and recorded performances through counterfeiting and over the Internet is a major threat to the global economy in terms of loss of employment and revenues. This digital theft destroys today creative endeavour, investment and employment tomorrow, it deprives creators and other rights holders from their fair share of the benefits generated by the digital economy. Even more important in the long term, as these creative industries suffer larger and larger loss of revenues they in turn are forced to reduce their investment in the production of creative content and with that vanishes work opportunities for creators, technicians and all other workers now and permanently into the future.

UNI MEI campaigns for building a global IP culture to raise the awareness of decision-makers, industry stakeholders and audiences about the nature and value of intellectual property and what importance it has for creation, future investment in production of creative content, remuneration of creators and employment opportunities for all those working in the creative industries.