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As someone in the audience mentioned at the end of the debate in Glasgow,
songwriters and publishers in the UK already have the option of asking another
collection society to collect royalties throughout Europe. One of the reasons
they probably choose not to is because the organizations are extremely
bureaucratic and inefficient. GEMA in Germany, for example, only distribute
twice a year compared to MCPS which does so on a monthly basis.
The solution to the current impasse therefore shouldn't be to attack the
monopoly status of the collection societies in the UK but to work with them to
ensure that those members who wish to license their work under CC are able to do
so. This shouldn't be too difficult in theory as PRS & MCPS license very
little non-commercial uses of music and would continue to collect &
distribute royalties for commercial use. It may be more difficult in practice
due to cumbersome computer systems and a general resistance to change.
It was frustrating to hear the tired old cliches that CC involves giving
away your rights and never making any money. If the British Academy of
Composers & Songwriters & British Music Rights take the time
to engage with CC they would soon realise that it is not
only relevant to academics & hobbyists and composers have more to gain
than lose from a more flexible approach to copyright which allows fans to share
music legally with friends and student film makers to use their music
without being faced with unnecessary bills.
The question of moral rights is obviously a crucial one and copyright
owners need to have some control over their work but the blanket licenses used
by PRS & MCPS at the moment result in the music of songwriters being used in
contexts they find unsuitable. Massive Attack were rather annoyed a couple of
years ago when the Conservatives used one of their songs at the launch of a
policy initiative but couldn't do very much about it.
The idea of the BACAS to design a new license for fair music use which
allows the free distribution of music without giving up copyright seems
absolutely crazy when this is exactly what makes Creative Commons so
appealing!
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, September 10, 2005 5:07
PM
Subject: Re: [Cc-uk] Collecting
Societies
There was a panel discussion about this last week at the
Musicworks
convention; http://www.musicworksuk.com/?node_id=1.3.2&id=83
. Andrés
Guadumuz blogged this at http://tinyurl.com/7omnq . The point was
there made
that collecting society rules in UK effectively debar
simultaneous use of CC
licences. One possible answer is an EU proposal to
allow creators to
determine (a) which collecting society to use EU wide and
(b) to stipulate
what it will collect: see FAQs at
http://europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/copyright/management/management_en
.htm
. These state Othe individual membership contract will allow
the
right-holder to define precisely the categories of rights administered
O .
See also http://www.edri.org/issues/governance/eupolicy
.
British Music Rights, (whose lawyer claimed at Musicworks that it
took him,
er, two hours on the internet to find the terms of the CC
licence) complain
"any solution that proposes to introduce competition
between societies for
users by allowing "forum-shopping" would totally
undermine [their
position]": http://www.bmr.org/html/submissions/submission111.htm
. Indeed.
Meanwhile there's no movement. The BASC licence David
Ferguson talked about
is still not publicly available even in draft- all we
saw was its logo
(which was misspelled). It doesn't however seem that it
will be compatible
with current collecting society requirements
either.
Jonathan
--
Jonathan Mitchell QC
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> From: Ed Griffith-Jones <ed AT acrewoods.net>
> Date: Sat, 10
Sep 2005 13:56:28 +0100
> To: Cc-uk AT lists.ibiblio.org
>
Subject: [Cc-uk] Collecting Societies
>
> Hello all,
>
> I was just wondering is anyone has spoken to the UK Collecting
Societies about
> Creative Commons recently?
>
> What is
their current stance on CC?
>
> Ed
> Remix Reading /
Brighton / FC-UK
>
> Hi Tim,
>
> I have already had
a meeting with ACLS and they were rather positive in
> relation to both
the commercial and non-commercial versions of the licence.
> The message
we are trying to pass is pretty much the one that Ashlyn from
> Fading
Ways was suggesting in a previous posting:
>
>> While he is
correct in pointing
>> out that CC is not a copyright alternative, CC
licenses clearly are
>> NEEDED in today's marketplace for artists
that believe home-taping and
>> P2P file sharing is beneficial to our
work and essential to our
>> internet and street-team marketing. It
is ludicrous to accept the
>> present music b usiness industry model,
which is incredibly stumped and
>> outdated by the information
highway, without looking at other ways to
>> legally improve our
business practices.
>
>
> I am planning meetings with the
rest of the UK collecting societies within
> March/April, so I will keep
you posted on that. Just wanted the licences to be
> finalised and on
the website before proceeding to any further discussions with
>
collecting societies.
>
> Having said that I would like to thank
you all for the feedback you keep
> providing on the licences. Also, to
the CC-Scotland team: sorry for the CC-UK
> mistake on the licences, it
keeps popping up the whole time in a rather
> embarassing way!!!
>
> Best,
> pRo
>
>
> --
> Prodromos
Tsiavos
> Oxford University Programme in Comparative Media Law and
Policy
> Manor Road, Oxford http://pcmlp.socleg.ox.ac.uk
>
>
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