What's the true impact of illegal downloading on jobs and the arts? Part 3

Harold Feld, legal director of Public Knowledge, and Andrew Keen, advisor to Arts and Labs, discuss the impact of illegal downloading on the economy and the arts through the lens of copyright legislation. Do we need new laws or simply new approaches within the current legal framework?

Says Feld, who represents the opinions of many Internet users and online entrepreneurs: [C]opyright holders need to understand that the best way to stop illegal downloads is to make the content available and affordable online in ways people want it. Hollywood lobbyists usually react to this with the same enthusiasm displayed by social conservatives when suggesting that free condoms in high schools help reduce teen pregnancies -- and for the same reason. It amounts to a confession that since you can't stop the conduct, you need to figure out how to acknowledge it and limit the negative consequences.

Says Keen, speaking up for the entertainment industry and artists within: [W]hy would consumers pay for Netflix, Hulu or Spotify content if all the same movies and songs can be illegally downloaded for free? And that's, of course, why we need carefully considered, bipartisan legislation like COICA. Because without it, the United States' entertainment industry -- with its millions of middle-class jobs -- is in serious jeopardy.