Glyn meets Billy Bragg to dicuss extending copyright protection

Leading singer-songwriter Billy Bragg together with South West Labour MEP Glyn Ford welcomed today’s European Parliament vote extending copyright protection from fifty to seventy years.

Glyn Ford said: “This vote is a first step in the right direction. It will give session musicians recognition of their contribution to the music industry by allowing them to have 20% of the income generated, while it will allow featured artists to generate income for another twenty years.”

Billy Bragg commented: “This report is very important, with the changes the music industry is undergoing, a legal framework is needed to enable musicians to earn a living and for consumers to get access to the music they want to hear. In the 21st century these decisions are made here in the European Parliament, they are not made in Westminster anymore. So it’s really important that the music industry understands it is actually the European Parliament that we should be lobbying and that’s why I am here today.”

“The Copyright Term Extension Directive which was voted on today is not perfect; it could be more centred on the right of artists. But it opens the door for us in building a new framework for the digital music age, which puts the artists at the very centre of not only making music but also selling music, because websites allow us to have that direct relationship with our fans. At the moment the copyright legislation does not match up with the sorts of things we can do with the internet.”

Glyn added: “There is still further to go. On the basis of contracts signed when record companies had to do the heavy lifting of producing, distributing and collecting the revenue for record sales, they gained the lion’s share of the proceeds. Now in a different technological era they will gain a windfall of tens of millions for doing absolutely nothing. We must in future see how this can be rebalanced in favour of those who made the music.”

Billy Bragg said:  “It’s been great to be able to ask my own MEP from the South West, Glyn Ford, to give me some time to speak to members of his own delegation and other British MEPs who have an interest in this issue. Glyn’s understanding of how the music industry works helped me, as he indentified the right people for me to speak to in the European Parliament. His understanding of the relationship between the Parliament and the Commission allowed me to speak to some very important people today. And I want to thank him for that.”

The report passed with 377 votes in favour, 178 against, and 37 abstentions.