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[13|07|04]
Authorial Rights and Piracy- The crisis in the music industry.
See photographs of this debate
As this is one of the most controversial issues in the field of culture these days, there was a special discussion on this topic “ Authorial Rights and Piracy- The crisis in the music industry” .We gathered for this talk lawyers, professionals, and people involved in related issues.
In the audiene there were poeple like Fred 04, singer of a band from Pernambuco- Mundo Livre S/A and the president of the Brazilian Association of Independent Music – ABMI.
Eliane Abrão, first speaker, is a lawyer and president of the Comission for Material Property of OAB (the National Lawyer´s Association). She started the debate saying that piracy´s effect is much stronger on big music industries than on the authors themselves . According to her, the artists earn only between 8 to 9 per cento on the sale of each track to the retailer “The music industry talks about their loss but the amount they make is never mentioned”.
She also talked about authorial rights law which protects different types of Work of art. The phonogram is not included on the list of protected itens. She mentioned Napster as reason for the implosion in the industry´system and made a comparison reminding people about Gutemberg´s times, when handwritten texts which were not offically produced by the Crown were considered pirate and were therefore burned. “The history of piracy is the B side of authorial rights. One should know more about authorial righs before talking about piracy”, she added. She concluded with a piece of advice , “Don´t buy anything that is pirate, anything smuggled and let´s appreciate national products”. She also gave her website address which covers issues discussed on the debate: www.direitoautoral.com.br .
Caution about contracts
Eduardo Pimenta, lawyer and also specialist in the field of authorial rights, was the next to speak. Articulator and author of several books which include Two crimes against intellectual property and Codes and Principles of Authorial Rights. Pimenta highlighted the importance of the creator as the one who holds the rights of his/her work. “It´s a natural right”. He explained how authorial rights have two models in the world, the anglo-saxon one: copyright which preserves the investor and the french model which is used in Brazil.
“Because most of the big industries are in the United States, piracy causes great loss, for they haven´t assimilated that there are also different models around ”, he continued. He raised a few issues. For example: How much does Brazil lose with piracy ? “I asked the Federal Bank how much is paid for royalties, but they have no control of it. The companies abroad are the ones who have the final word There can be marketing defficiencies or even no reembursement to creators- nobody will know”.
He also reminded that international recording industries can authorise the liberation of authorial rights anywhere in the world, many times not even passing them to the author. He showed a tape sold in Argentina with hits of the brazilian singer Simone but the cover had the photograph of another singer -Joana, showing how little care was given to that. “What can be done? Checking must be even more effective. I also suggest a new kind of behaviour from the artists, they must have lawyers helping them to prepare their contracts, because the artists want his or her work to circulate , to be diffused, but they have to know what has been signed” he concluded.
The Parlliamet Group for the support of Brazilian Popular Culture was also represented in this debate by Frei Tito Figueiroa. who holds a doctor´s degree in Anthropology and is a professor of UFPE. He defended the author´s rights for people in general and also for groups who hold traditional popular knowledge. He stressed the importance of reembursing them not only for the authorshop and creation but also to defend the legal recognition of the rights for curculation and trade ,as well as the so called “neighbouring rights” . He also talked about the commitments and proposals of the group, like the creation of a new judicial category or even new laws which understand the intellectual and artistic property laws either for creating groups and/ or investors and diffusers of the brazilian material cultural patrimony. They also propose a revision of the existing laws. He not only demanded jucicial rights , but also social inclusion for those actors of popular culture.
The crisis in the industry
The director of the French Music Office – French Embasy, Bruno Boulay, spoke next focusing on the problems of the big music industry. To him, . we are not going through crisis but structural changes as we have never consumed so much music as now. According to him, with the creation of the CD, the multinationals hegemony was consolidated but they could not see the new forms of music consumption, the digital model or the beginning of analogical piracy. All those changes caused a decrease in figures for big industries, but on the other hand, balanced the power for independent markets which grew and enabled the rise of new artists “The enterprises worked like a filter, now with the Internet, the artists have open spaces”, he said .
To him, it is important to discuss such issues, mobilizing professionals in connection with public policies, which were never that important before, in different countries .He also mentioned that regulamentation is important ,but they should be able to allow the creation of new laws due to all these changes. “We must show young people that when they consume music through the Internet they must respect and pay to consume”. At the same time, he said, “music must become cheaper, reducing tax,for example, making the access easier ”, he concluded.
Before opening the debate for the audience participation, Peter Rantasa, from Áustria, chief consultant of WCFA ( World Culture Forum Alliance) concluded with one of the most moving speeches. According to him, after he travelled and observed the music market in some countries out of Europe, he noticed that the only way that unknown and popular-focused artists have to show their work is through a “pirate” CD, as they have neither money nor access to big recording industries.
He showed data taken from a survey carried out by him based on two reports whcih are presented separately by the phonographic industry,one was about piracy issues in the sector and the other about production. The result of Rantasa´s analysis was surprising. In countries where the national music consumption is stronger piracy is also stronger , but in places where the national music consumption is smaller piracy also decreases. He gave examples, in countries like Brazil where the market consumes 68% of national music , piracy levels reach 50%, but Austria where international production represents 90% of the market is a place where piracy levels reach less than 10%. It´s a correlation of power , the countries with less than 10% of national music comsumption have low levels of piracy and vice-versa. The only exception is France due to local cultural issues.
Rantasa´s analysis showed that due to the fact that the industry works with common products for the whole planet, not allowing local productions to come into light they make those excluded artists look for alternative ways, like piracy , to diffuse their work. He gave another example, In Austria in 2001, where 1,25% of the GDP comes from the music industry, representing around 258 million Euros, the most astounding thing to notice is that only 456 artists can make 4 thousand Euros in 5 years, contrasting the fact that 15 thousnad other artists who didn´t even get to that amount.
“I presume that cultural diversity is not appointed by privacy rights systema We need new balances , especailly in southern countries ”. According to him , artists should know how to have access to the public and the public should know how to reach the artist they are interested in. When asked about the access to music on the Internet he replied: “The industry has no reply to that . The changes we are going through help small artists. One ought to know how to use this technology”, he added. “A lot of people are lobbying to preserve old structures. Get organised in open and transparent organizations. Such structural changes offer us a vast field for the future. Build a basis of knowledge. You have the right to information. Information is power. Do not trust what is fashionable”, he concluded. |
