Ease of file sharing threatens intellectual ownership

Asked about the future of media in the digital age, Time Warner Chairman and CEO Richard Parsons, a native of Brooklyn, quoted another New Yorker, Yogi Berra.

"The future," he said, "ain't what it used to be."

Few people understand that better than Parsons, who shepherded Time Warner through the aftermath of its wrenching and costly merger with Internet powerhouse America Online.

Today he presides over the world's largest media conglomerate, a $44 billion empire that combines "old media" staples such as publishing houses, movie studios and television networks with "new media" assets such as cable and Internet services.

In a freewheeling, question-and-answer-style talk Thursday night before nearly 1,000 people in the Austin Auditorium at Oregon State University's LaSells Stewart Center, Parsons made it clear that Time Warner intends to keep pace with emerging technologies while building on its traditional strengths.

"The reality is that people do not change nearly as rapidly as technology does," he said. "Keeping an eye on technology is important because what it enables is important, but also understanding what people want, what nourishes people, that's important, too."

Ultimately, he argued, content will always be king because that's what people want, no matter what platform it's delivered on. New technologies mean new opportunities "for media companies that have mastered the art of storytelling" and have established a brand consumers trust, he said.

He also argued that media companies need to get paid for that content, even in the era of instant computer file sharing.

"That's a question that's at ground zero of the digital revolution we're in," he said. "How do you protect intellectual property?"

Online ventures like the music-trading service Napster and the user-posted video site YouTube have their place, Parsons said, but they cross an important line when they begin to profit from distributing content without paying for it.

"Many young people," Parsons said, "ask: Why shouldn't music be free?"

The reason, he said, is that the profit motive is an important driver of creative work.

"I think it's that fundamental," he said. "I think people are more creative, more prolific, more imaginative when they can own the product of their intellect and imagination."

That's the problem with YouTube, he said, which has moved past posting home videos to showing clips from commercial broadcasts. He would like to see a licensing arrangement that allows companies such as Time Warner to profit from or at least regulate the use of their content online.

"Intellectual property crime is no different than property crime. You can't just get in my car and drive around in it because you don't think you should have to pay for it," Parsons said. "(YouTube) is beginning to make money off stuff I own, and they're not sharing."

Parsons also fired back at the suggestion that giant conglomerates such as Time Warner are stifling the free flow of news and information by concentrating too many news outlets in just a few hands.

"Think of the proliferation of electronic news sources," he said, ticking off a list of cable networks and online services. "Everybody and his brother has a blog. There are more outlets for news and information than at any time in the history of the world."

That fact makes it more important than ever for a news organization to establish a solid reputation as an honest broker of unbiased information.

"It's a jailbreak," he said. "Everybody's a reporter nowadays."

Parsons' talk was sponsored by the OSU College of Business as part of the Dean's Distinguished Lecture Series. Landing a speaker of his stature was something of a coup for the college, whose students filled many of the seats in the auditorium.

The Time Warner executive agreed to come at the request of Ephraim "Red" Rocha, who starred on the Beavers' first NCAA Tournament basketball team in 1947 and later coached Parsons at the University of Hawaii. Rocha was in the audience Thursday night, and Parsons paid his respects to his former coach as he explained his reasons for coming to Corvallis.

"I found myself saying yes because I owed this man something," Parsons said. "So thank you, Red, for what you did for me 45 years ago."

Bennett Hall is the business editor for the Gazette-Times. He can be reached at 758-9529 or bennett.hall@lee.net.