Cc-uk mailing list

["Paul Harkins" <paul AT extrayardmusic.co.uk>]

I'm not surprised by Emma Pike's remarks. She wrote a pretty disparaging and 
at times misinformed article about CC for the current issue of the PRS/MCPS 
members magazine. Its available here:

http://www.bmr.org/html/news/news53.htm

The thrust of Nevrkla's point about academia is valid though I think. 
Academics can happily use CC licenses for their work because they are 
salaried. Most songwriters and musicians on the other hand need to make a 
living from their work.

Like Neil though, I think (and hope) that CC licenses can form the basis of 
a business model and am trying to do just that with my own music publishing 
company. I was initially concerned that free culture equated to copyright 
anarchy but having listened to Lawrence Lessig and spoken to him at the 
launch of CC Scotland I know that this is not the case.

On the subject of PRS & MCPS, I worked for the organizations up until last 
summer so am happy to help with any advice about the mechanics of royalty 
collection and distribution. I don't have a great grasp of things like the 
articles of association but neither do many people who work there which is 
why you will get contradictory answers to questions depending on who you 
ask.

The way I see it though is that the two societies should be able to 
accommodate CC licenses because they license very little non-commercial use 
of music i.e. churches need a PRS license but most licensees will be 
businesses. The organization is very bureaucratic though and change may only 
occur if and when enough members demand or vote for it.

One problem I envisaged was the question of royalties for performances on 
the BBC. These are very important to a lot of members but are they 
commercial or non-commercial? Whilst not a commercial broadcaster as such 
surely songwriters and publishers should still be entitled to receive 
royalties for the use of their music on BBC television and radio programmes.

Best wishes.

Paul

t: 01592 560521
m: 07752 086309
w: www.extrayardmusic.co.uk


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Rob Myers" <robmyers AT mac.com>
To: "cc-uk" <cc-uk AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2005 3:06 PM
Subject: [Cc-uk] "El Reg" On CC Panel Discussion


> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/28/creative_commons_talk/
>
> "Emma Pike, director general of British Music Rights, took the unusual 
> step of recomending[sic] musicians use Kazaa rather than a CC license."
>
> Sounds rather desperate. :-)
>
> "She also expressed concerns, shared by others in the audience, that 
> Creative Commons does not do enough to warn artists what rights they are 
> ceding by signing up to such a license."
>
> Sounds rather familiar. :-)
>
> - Rob.
> _______________________________________________
> Cc-uk mailing list
> Cc-uk AT lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-uk