Harvey Weinstein criticizes Apple, Google over ‘releasing content under guise of free Internet’

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Washington, Oct. 14: US film producer Harvey Weinstein has criticized media giants Apple and Google for making content available under the guise of ‘free Internet’.

“It’s a nonsensical idea,” he told an audience at the London Film Festival.

He said that video-sharing sites like YouTube were doing a “massive disservice” to the film industry.

According to the BBC, he went on to praise France for passing the world’s “toughest” anti-piracy law.

In 2009, France adopted a so-called “three-strikes law” that means persistent pirates can be thrown offline.

The legislation, Weinstein claimed, had “disincentivised” people to “steal” content and had resulted in a “robust” local industry.

He identified the consolidation of media companies as another threat to independent-minded film-making, claiming it meant that “everyone plays it safe”, the report said

“These companies make movies to make money,” he said, adding: “We too want to be profitable, but [also] to do something worthwhile and innovative.”

According to the report, yet his remarks have been questioned by a leading UK digital rights campaigner, who claimed the film industry was at least partly to blame for the losses it is facing at the hands of digital pirates.

“The industry hasn’t made their own content easily available for low enough prices to move the market into legal services,” Jim Killock of the Open Rights Group said.

“They’ve created the conditions for widespread copyright infringement and it’s in their hands to change that,” he added.(ANI)