To much fanfare, the Government has announced a plan to turn the East End of London into the UK’s equivalent of Silicon Valley. The British press highlighted the epicentre of this project as a roundabout in Shoreditch, so needless to say we can now look forward to having ‘Silicon Roundabout’. Behind the headlines lies a commitment by companies such as Facebook, Google and McKinsey & Co. to invest in the long-term future of the area, alongside a proposal for a new visa for entrepreneurs wishing to invest in the UK. A positive move and something PRS for Music supports; in fact we are, among other initiatives, working with government to create a digital test bed for new, licensed music services.
The second part of David Cameron’s announcement was slightly overshadowed by this inward investment discussion, but is of direct relevance to all of us. The Department for Business Innovation & Skills (BIS) has appointed Professor Ian Hargreaves, current chair of Digital Economy at the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, to review how the intellectual property system can better drive growth and innovation. David Cameron said: ‘The founders of Google have said they could never have started their company in Britain. The service they provide depends on taking a snapshot of all the content on the internet at any one time and they feel our copyright system is not as friendly to this sort of innovation as it is in the United States.’ I don’t entirely agree with that statement, but the sentiment behind it is important.
I’m sure we would all agree that copyright law can be complex and that the way we protect our intellectual property must evolve to meet the changing business landscape, but it is essential to explain to those who conduct these reviews how copyright delivers a vital income stream to creators – not just in the musical genre – and that change must be fully thought through and the impacts properly assessed.
In fact it is not just BIS that is conducting a review that may affect our business. BT and Talk Talk have won a judicial review of the Digital Economy Act on the grounds that it may contravene European laws on privacy and e-commerce, and also may have been unfairly rushed through Parliament. Added to the Hargreaves Review, we also have the crossparty Culture, Media and Sport Committee investigating the ‘Protection of Intellectual Property Rights Online’, a forthcoming Framework Directive on Collective Rights Management from the EU Commission for the Internal Market (see M37), and an expressed interest in the workings of copyright and the digital economy from the EU Commissioner for Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes and EU Competition Commissioner Joaquín Almunia.A busy time clearly lies ahead.
Against this background, PRS for Music has led the way in licensing Online Music Services in Europe; we have licensed 50 digital services since 2001 and thousands of smaller ones. We generate £3.57 per capita in royalty revenue from these services in the UK, second only to £4.14 in the United States and well ahead of France at £1.29 and Germany at £1.20. We have been a pioneer in pan-European licensing and are setting the agenda for the simplification of the licensing process in both the back and front offices. It is vital, if we are to support a vibrant creative economy, that we give users of music easy access to copyright licences while protecting the value of copyright.
Much has been made of the claim by new services that they ‘cannot get a licence to operate in Europe’, but on the other hand Spotify, which has paid over €40m to rights holders in the past three years, has been unable so far to obtain the licences it needs to operate in the United States.
We remain committed to the cause of developing a healthy market in online music and are working energetically with all the government initiatives at both UK and EU level to develop a policy framework that protects the value of copyright while developing the structures and processes that will support easy access to the repertoire for companies and individuals wishing to launch online music services.
We will continue to work on your behalf to champion the value of copyright to all stakeholders, explain the way the system protects your works, delivers your royalties and helps you to keep creating the content that lies at the heart of these reviews, while working with partners to deliver an easier and more efficient licensing environment for online music services.
The second part of David Cameron’s announcement was slightly overshadowed by this inward investment discussion, but is of direct relevance to all of us. The Department for Business Innovation & Skills (BIS) has appointed Professor Ian Hargreaves, current chair of Digital Economy at the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, to review how the intellectual property system can better drive growth and innovation. David Cameron said: ‘The founders of Google have said they could never have started their company in Britain. The service they provide depends on taking a snapshot of all the content on the internet at any one time and they feel our copyright system is not as friendly to this sort of innovation as it is in the United States.’ I don’t entirely agree with that statement, but the sentiment behind it is important.
I’m sure we would all agree that copyright law can be complex and that the way we protect our intellectual property must evolve to meet the changing business landscape, but it is essential to explain to those who conduct these reviews how copyright delivers a vital income stream to creators – not just in the musical genre – and that change must be fully thought through and the impacts properly assessed.
In fact it is not just BIS that is conducting a review that may affect our business. BT and Talk Talk have won a judicial review of the Digital Economy Act on the grounds that it may contravene European laws on privacy and e-commerce, and also may have been unfairly rushed through Parliament. Added to the Hargreaves Review, we also have the crossparty Culture, Media and Sport Committee investigating the ‘Protection of Intellectual Property Rights Online’, a forthcoming Framework Directive on Collective Rights Management from the EU Commission for the Internal Market (see M37), and an expressed interest in the workings of copyright and the digital economy from the EU Commissioner for Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes and EU Competition Commissioner Joaquín Almunia.A busy time clearly lies ahead.
Against this background, PRS for Music has led the way in licensing Online Music Services in Europe; we have licensed 50 digital services since 2001 and thousands of smaller ones. We generate £3.57 per capita in royalty revenue from these services in the UK, second only to £4.14 in the United States and well ahead of France at £1.29 and Germany at £1.20. We have been a pioneer in pan-European licensing and are setting the agenda for the simplification of the licensing process in both the back and front offices. It is vital, if we are to support a vibrant creative economy, that we give users of music easy access to copyright licences while protecting the value of copyright.
Much has been made of the claim by new services that they ‘cannot get a licence to operate in Europe’, but on the other hand Spotify, which has paid over €40m to rights holders in the past three years, has been unable so far to obtain the licences it needs to operate in the United States.
We remain committed to the cause of developing a healthy market in online music and are working energetically with all the government initiatives at both UK and EU level to develop a policy framework that protects the value of copyright while developing the structures and processes that will support easy access to the repertoire for companies and individuals wishing to launch online music services.
We will continue to work on your behalf to champion the value of copyright to all stakeholders, explain the way the system protects your works, delivers your royalties and helps you to keep creating the content that lies at the heart of these reviews, while working with partners to deliver an easier and more efficient licensing environment for online music services.
