The European Commission (EC) published its Digital Competitiveness report, saying that the "digital economy can lift Europe out of crisis".

A media statement from the EC quoted Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, as saying that "Europe’s digital economy has tremendous potential to generate huge revenues across all sectors, but to turn this advantage into sustainable growth and new jobs, governments must show leadership by adopting co-ordinated policies that dismantle existing barriers to new services".

The media statement briefly mentions that "the ‘digital generation’ seems reluctant to pay to download or view online content," noting that "in reality, twice as many of them have paid for these services compared to the rest of the population," but then fails to draw any conclusion out of these two facts.

Industry lobbyists meanwhile hail the success of legal, licensed alternatives to pirated content.

In reality, these legal alternatives have materialised so slowly, they would make a snail look like a thoroughbred racehorse.

Apple’s successful iTunes store has, years after it was introduced in the US, only been introduced in a handful of European countries as the company has to negotiate licensing on a country-by-country basis.

Other licensed services suffer the same problem and are either not available or have only limited availability outside a certain set of countries - it is no surprise that almost as a rule, these services are not available to the ‘digital generation’ in Bulgaria.

If the EC would be serious about dismantling existing barriers, it would have to start with a rigorous overhaul of the current copyright system. Beginning by introducing EU-wide copyright and neighbouring laws, and ending with severely limiting the duration of copyright laws.

The digital economy makes distribution near-instant at near-zero costs. There is no reason why copyrights could not follow that same curve; short durations with low-cost licence fees.

It will not be until new services can be set up without requiring deep-pockets to invest in years of legal wrangling with rights-holders and their representatives that the film and music industry might get a shot at gaining that potential market called the ‘digital generation.’

Given the slowness with which this particular industry is known to adapt to new realities, one can only hope business finds a different way out of the current economic crisis.