Finally, Some Intelligent Thinking On ©
Copyright has always lagged behind the ways that people use copyrighted material and this has been very evident in the past ten years. While record labels, publishers, rights societies and other copyright owners defend the current system, people insist on making use of it in ways that suit them, in ways that make the current system look hopelessly obsolete.
Last week the UK Intellectual Property Office released © The Way Ahead, a paper that states "There is no doubt that overall simplification of the copyright system would be beneficial."
Among the recommendations they make:
— "The copyright system cannot be expected to command public support unless consumers can use works in the ways they want, such as sharing photos with friends on the web."
— It advocates an EU-level distinction between commercial and non-commercial copying.
— Legalising more copying, the creation of sound/image mashups, format-shifting and sharing material with family and friends, with fair compensation for any revenue loss.
— Introdiuce collective licensing.
The report says it wants to "improve the existing copyright system rather than to devise a radically new one", which is sensible as any moves will take months and possibly years of lobbying and compromise. But at last someone is addressing the reality of how the public use media.
You can read more detail at: UK Will Urge EC To Legalise Mashups, Format-Shifting, Content Sharing
You can download the report at: © the way ahead
Comments (5)
Thanks for the info. This all has to be addressed at some point.
Its a tricky one for sure, I see the difficulty in policing digital music has a positive and thats live music will get its place back in the world, most muso's work for next to nothing but a very small percent live like kings, sounds similar to most things and thats always gunna be tricky.
they're definitely acknowledging that it needs to be addressed, but unless they get definitive with their recommendations they'll just be pushing the red tape and lawsuits farther down the food chain. i haven't looked at the actual report, but my guess is that no true solutions have been recommended. i'd LOVE to be wrong on that! great post Jonh. you know i believe in this stuff.
Very interesting. The devil in the detail is, as Robin suggests, artist compensation in the context of non-commercial and commercial exploitation, expropriation, or the dreaded mashup. Who can track and account? Clearly non-commercial file sharing, re-broadcast and re-purposing of original work can't be controlled or prevented. I support live music, buy CD's, preferably direct from the artist, and pay through ITunes. (Check out Robin's great CD, if you haven't already.) But making collective liscensing and setting up fair compensation for revenue loss is very, very difficult. This is a far bigger issue than bootlegging, which is not a big issue except for well established acts...
Interesting article... and I might add.. the music industry is in the middle of a shake down anyway... or shake up.. whichever way you choose to look at it. Distribution model is broken, marketing is not like it was... people want freebies... gotta think about all of this! NOT today tho.. its toxic tuesday.... lol