Sion Simon, minister for creative industries, said changes in the way content is being licensed do not "licence people to break the law".
Simon was speaking at the C&binet conference in Hertfordshire, convened by the Government to bring together executives from the creative and finance industries.
Delegates discussed the practicalities of ensuring consumers pay for copyrighted content, especially in digital formats.
Chris Clark, founder and chief executive of marketing and technology company Sapient Nitro, said he doubted "people will start paying for things they are not used to".
Clark said the "model is broken in advertising" and the big issue now is "who will own media".
He said that, without brands, content producers "will not get paid" and brands should "find a way to control media".
However, earlier in the conference, Jean Bernard Levy, chief executive of Vivendi, owner of Universal Music and gaming group Activision, said ad-funded, free-to-air TV is "still a valuable business model, but not with the same cost base".
Vivendi currently owns a 20% stake in NBC Universal, but Levy said it "was not a core part" of the business and it "could be sold through flotation" in the US.
He added Vivendi had not been hit as hard as other media by the recession because "most of its businesses are subscription-based".
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