At this morning’s Cabinet Forum conference, Peter Mandelson announced the government’s plans to amend UK digital rights management, stating his intention of giving a fairer deal for all.

In backing a tough, three strikes policy for file-sharers – echoing the hard-line position taken by France and Vivendi CEO, Jean-Bernard Levy, Mandelson shows good intentions, aimed at protecting the UK’s media industry as well as copyright law. Sadly, they miss the heart of the issue.

Since just 5 per cent of songs downloaded in the UK are legal, no one can escape blame for the current situation, from cunning content creators to producers, rights owners and consumers, who are so keen on digital theft...

While I am certain that the piracy problem is not insurmountable, I remain unconvinced that simply excluding the offenders from the internet will resolve the issue. One element that Lord Mandelson seems to overlook is the fact that there are already several barriers to filesharing that have not yet prevented its rapid, inexorable spread.

For example, it is not easy to download and share music illegally. Free p2p download services such as Limewire are less than intuitive for the average consumer. Add to this the fact that many p2p services are loaded with viruses and malware and you have two immediate own goals for illegal filesharers.

We agree that consumers want access to music but they want that access to be straightforward, safe and, for a growing majority, they want it to be fair. Most consumers are not intent on putting their favourite artists out of business – one of the first steps must be to stop depicting them as such.

Much in the same way that the vast majority of consumers buy products from reputable retailers instead of the black market, most would rather support artists and their livelihood by consuming licensed music. The solution proposed by Mandelson today – simply cutting people off or denying access is more reminiscent of the way in which this problem began in the first place.

Illegal downloading became an issue when the music industry first decided to try and stop consumers from listening to music online. Much as today’s proposals have done, instead of finding a way for everyone to benefit from online music, the problem was instead denied. Attempting to close it down led to the industry’s loss of control and a fervour within the piracy culture.

Consumers swiftly adjusted to this new state of play and illegal filesharing spiralled into a global phenomenon, leaving us with the situation today, where artists and the industry at large are losing enormous amounts of revenue.

Learning from past mistakes to develop reasonable and sustainable models for providing music to consumers is more likely to reduce piracy than today’s ‘three strikes’ proposal. We at we7 strongly believe that this is the approach that should be taken by the government, instead of criminalising consumers and driving pirates even further underground.

While there is room for some form of deterrent for repeat offenders, simply cutting people off is not the answer, and educating consumers about alternatives such as legitimate online streaming would go much further to resolving the issue.

At we7, we believe that ad-funded music, done properly, offers a solution, but no one is promising that it will be straightforward. As with all consumption, the balance of supply and demand must be met, but we believe that sustainable, ad-funded music is a first step in transforming today’s pirate into tomorrow’s legitimate music lover.

Supporters on all sides in this debate acknowledge that in order to keep generating the music we love, artists need to be paid and the average consumer wants to support the music they care about. But, at the end of the day, it is not for them to find a way to do that; the onus is on the government and the industry to promote the monetisation of online music, instead of demonising and punishing the general public.

Steve Purdham is the CEO of the UK-based music streaming service We7

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