News Corporation Europe and Asia chief calls for tough line on piracy, adding: 'They're not crazy kids. No. Punish them'

This article is more than 10 years old

This article is more than 10 years old

James Murdoch today called on governments to get tough on illegal downloading, which he said was no different from "going into a store and stealing Pringles or a handbag".

Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of News Corporation's European and Asian operations, was joined in calling for tougher piracy measures at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit today by other media executives including Ari Emanuel, co-chief executive of William Morris Endeavor, the biggest Hollywood talent agency.

But Murdoch, who stressed that future growth would come from original content production, took the toughest line on piracy.

"We need enforcement mechanisms and we need governments to play ball … There is no difference with going into a store and stealing Pringles or a handbag and taking this stuff. It's a basic condition for investment and economic growth and there should be the same level of property rights whether it's a house or a movie," he said.

"The idea that there's a new consumer class and you have to be consumer-friendly when they're stealing stuff. No. There should be the same level of sanctity as there is around property. Content is no different. They're not crazy kids. No. Punish them."

The outburst from the man widely tipped to take over when his father, Rupert Murdoch, steps down as News Corporation chairman and chief executive, attracted a round of applause from media executives at the Abu Dhabi summit.

Only Maurice Levy, chief executive of French advertising group Publicis, sounded an alternative note when he said: "My grandchild doesn't believe he's stealing."

Murdoch also reiterated previous threats by his father Rupert that News Corp may take legal action against content aggregators such as Google to protect its copyright.

"We're being very careful legally to protect our rights," he said. "If there's money getting stuck it's getting stuck in an inefficient distribution layer … where Google and Yahoo are suddenly indexing copyright material and then selling bits of it and making money from it. You may have to withdraw access to those things. You may not."

Murdoch also asked for lighter touch regulation for a business that is the largest shareholder in UK pay-TV broadcaster BSkyB and owns the News International stable of national newspapers including the Sun and the Times.

In an earlier point about investment opportunities, Murdoch said: "When we look at different marketplaces ... it's really a question for us about how free a hand we're going to have to operate."

He was echoing comments made by his father, Rupert, at yesterday's keynote speech in Abu Dhabi about the need for less regulation, particularly in the Gulf states.

Emanuel, the brother of US presidential adviser Rahm, said the industry was talking to the US government in a bid to introduce a "three strikes and you're out" law to govern illegal downloading.

"We are in the midst of talking to the president and some attorney generals and [we are] trying to implement a three strikes and you're out rule," he added.

He suggested that there would be a "fight with ISPs" (internet service providers) over the subject. France last year introduced a similar rule which allowed legal action once internet users had downloaded illegally three times.

Earlier today at the Abu Dhabi conference, Google's chief executive Eric Schmidt made an impassioned presentation on the search company's "mobile first" strategy.

But he was perhaps less forthcoming about the flood of questions about Google's dominance and control over its use of our data.

"Would you prefer another government to hold the information that we have?" he said, adding that the company had enough checks and balances to stop information being misused, and it would also not want to lose people's trust.

Schmidt also suggested that location-based social networking services such as Foursquare and Gowalla could become the next Twitter.

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