London, 08 April 2008
On April 8th, the UK music industry, as represented by the Music Business Group [MBG], delivered its collective response to the proposed changes to copyright exceptions as recommended by Andrew Gowers.
The most contentious of these remains UK IPO’s proposed recommendations to implement an exception for format shifting without compensation.
The MBG wholeheartedly welcomes this debate. Despite massive sales growth of both MP3 players and music-enabled mobile handsets, the act of transferring music from a legitimately purchased CD to such devices for personal use remains technically illegal in the UK.
We acknowledge that consumers clearly want to format shift and also place enormous value on the transferability of music. Music fans clearly deserve legal clarity in this area as well as the freedom to enjoy any music they have legitimately obtained.
But it is not only music lovers who benefit here. Enormous value is derived by those technology companies and manufacturers who enable consumers to copy. UK creators and rights owners are legally entitled to share in this value – as they hold the exclusive right to reproduce their music – but are currently excluded from the value chain.
The UK IPO’s current recommendation also leaves the UK at odds with the rest of Europe. In every other major European territory, an exception for private copying is counterbalanced by mechanisms that compensate creators and rights holders. This principle was reiterated recently by EU Internal Market Commissioner, Charles McCreevy.
On February 14th 2008, Mr McCreevy stated: “There can be no question of calling into doubt the entitlement of rights holders for compensation for private copying…”
This was echoed by the UK’s largest academic survey into the music consumption habits of young people, undertaken by the University of Hertfordshire and British Music Rights, where 90% of those who supported a licensing system agreed that creators should be compensated for a private copying exception.
Said Stephen Navin, Chief Executive of the Music Publishers Association and Chairman of the Music Business Group: “The Government’s Creative Britain report rightly recognises the heroic contribution made by the creative industries to the prosperity of the UK. Here is a clear opportunity to fortify our creativity. The UK music industry is united on this issue in calling for parity with our European counterparts.”
To restore a balance of copyright – one that allows consumers to enjoy their music, that drives technological innovation, and reinstates music creators’ and rights owners’ place in the value chain – the MBG is proposing to UK IPO an easily-implemented, flexible, future-proofed and transparent solution: an exception subject to licence.
The purpose of this proposal would not be to legitimise the wholesale copying and sharing of music, but to allow consumers to transfer music they have purchased onto their portable devices, while ensuring that a fraction of the value is enjoyed by those who create music and invest in its creation. The licensing scheme would be restricted to copying in the offline world.
Navin added: “The music business supports consumers being able to transfer music they have purchased onto their iPod or their phone, without infringing copyright. But creators must share fairly in the significant value that derives from this transferability of music.
“Licensing is first nature to the music industry, our willingness to license is part of our DNA, and in the existing shape of our collecting societies, the MCPS-PRS Alliance and PPL, we have the apparatus and expertise to make this happen.
“This is not a green light to legitimise all copying, but an attempt to restore the equilibrium of copyright in a realistic, non-disruptive and mutually beneficial manner. It is imperative that creators have the ability and support to create, and – most important of all - that consumers be left to enjoy the music that they so obviously love.”
