The extraordinary engineers and thinkers who are making content available are also capable of coming up with ingenious ways of keeping creative content safe.
A major news narrative coming out of last month’s boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao was about the use of Periscope by some fans to post live streams of the pay-per-view broadcast. There were hyberbolic headlines about “the new Napster.”

In an op-ed that ran Tuesday morning in The Hill, CreativeFuture Chief Executive Officer Ruth Vitale wrote about how the real story is far less dramatic:

Headlines about “the new Napster” notwithstanding, the real story of pirating content via Periscope is about as dramatic as the reports I’ve read about the fight itself. Periscope CEO Kayvon Beykpour has said publicly that he will be part of the solution. After the fight, Beykpour tweeted, “Piracy does not excite us. Trust me, we respect IP rights & had many people working hard to be responsive last night (including myself).” The creative community welcomes this cooperation and looks forward to working with him.

Vitale continues:

Meaningful reductions in piracy can be achieved when all technology companies, from the hot new start-ups to the top of the Fortune 500, take two key steps: First, recognize that a legal digital marketplace for all kinds of content is in their best interests. Second, apply their technical expertise to implement reasonable steps to ensure legitimate use on their platforms.

With Periscope – and any new technology that can be misused to facilitate piracy – content creators and owners have good reason to keep their guard up. While many news outlets noted the poor quality of Periscope broadcasts of the fight, you can bet that the quality will continue to improve. Livestreaming apps could pose a more serious threat to broadcast viewership and other legitimate distribution methods for creative content in the future.

However, Vitale stressed the creative community’s openness to tech companies that act responsibly and respect the fundamental right of all creatives to choose how their works are distributed.

Piracy does not have to be a black eye for Periscope—or for any tech company. If tech leaders are serious about building business models that can work for both their companies and the creators whose products add value to their platforms, they’ll have the creative community in their corner. All of us.

You can read the entire op-ed here.