fair music weblog

For the first time, an attempt is being made in the field of culture to achieve a balance of interests between the right to intellectual property and the right to participate in world culture. The 2nd World Forum on Music of the International Music Council (IMC) in Beijing this Friday brings together representatives from the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization), royalty collecting societies and artists, the International Musicians’ Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), one of the globally most prominent civil rights initiatives, as well as Creative Commons and the fair music initiative. The discussion-process on Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) is anchored by the International Music Council, the top-level umbrella-organization of music-related NGOs associated with UNESCO. The debate seeks a balancing of interest within the framework the Musical Rights of the IMC. Moderator and chair of the IPR-Panel is Peter Rantasa, a member of the IMC’s board of directors and the initiator of fair music, the first global initiative for justice and fairness in the music business.

Every person has the right to the protection of his/her intellectual property, which guarantees him/her recognition as the creator of a piece of work, including a fair percentage of the revenue generated by their creative works. In an age of digital cultural productions and marketing, there is often a collision between the protection of intellectual property on one hand and, on the other hand, the general right to partake of world culture. The current, internationally inconsistently regulated copyright is no longer adequate to the structural changes within the music business brought on by digitisation. It is also no longer able to create an urgently needed balance of interests free of contradictions between the right to fair compensation for those who create music and the right of people to have access to world culture in all its diversity.