Cc-uk mailing list

["Paul Brindley - MusicAlly" <Paul AT MusicAlly.com>]

Just to clarify - it is only the PRS (which administers the performing
right) which takes an assignment of rights, not the MCPS (which administers
mechanical rights). So there is an issue with existing PRS members who wish
to avail themselves of this scheme.

I do a fair amount of business with the MCPS-PRS Alliance and I get the
impression they're pretty supportive as Edward suggests of whatever creators
want to do with their work and would wish to co-operate with the CC scheme.
Could I suggest that someone 'official' from the list contact the Alliance
to get a dialogue going? The first point of contact should be Adrian
Crookes, their external PR manager who can be contacted on 020 73064230 or
adrian.crookes AT mcps-prs-alliance.co.uk.



-----Original Message-----
From: cc-uk-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:cc-uk-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of Edward Barrow
Sent: 19 October 2004 08:09
To: cc-uk AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [Cc-uk] collecting societies and creative commons


There are two aspects to this issue: whether  CC licences are legally
compatible with collecting society membership; and whether collecting
societies are themselves sympathetic to CC aims.

The answer to the first question will vary by society. The musical societies
in the UK tend to take an assignment of the performance or mechanical rights
from their members, hence there may be some incompatibilities with CC
licences.

The Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) - see declaration of interest below -
takes only non-exclusive licences from the authors and publishers who via
the
Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) and the Publishers
Licensing
Society (PLS) respectively grant it the authority to issue licences. There
is
therefore unlikely to be any legal incompatibility between the CC licences
and membership of ALCS or PLS; however, for a fuller answer the ALCS Mem and
Arts  and membership form should be examined in detail against the CC
licences.

As to the second question, the societies themselves will not have any formal
position on the Creative Commons, although there are many individuals within
the societies who are sympathetic, and I can recall at least one private
conversation along the lines of, "We should have done something like that
first". However, the societies do represent primarily people who *make a
living* from creating new content; whilst all support wider and simpler
access to that content, it is far from clear that the Creative Commons model
yet provides a satisfactory method of putting bread on the author's table,
or
providing a return on the editorial investment made by publishers.

Nevertheless, I am quite sure that the UK societies would welcome the
opportunity to work together with CC  where appropriate - for example, on
issues such as copyright awareness, copyright education, and resolving
licence incompatibilities.


**Declaration and Disclaimer**
I advise the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA), the UK's collective
management
organisation for reprographic copying of books and journals.
This reply is my own position and does not reflect any position  CLA might
hold, nor is it being made at the instigation of CLA or in connection with
any work I am doing for CLA.
--
Edward Barrow
Copyright Consultant
edward AT copyweb.co.uk
***Important: see http://www.copyweb.co.uk/email.htm for important
information
about the legal status of this email
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