Here we go again - Bah to the Digital Bill

The Government has come under a lot of pressure about clause 17 in the Digital Economy Bill which as proposed permitted them to change future copyright law without any debate in parliament. Now they have proposed this new clause:

"The Secretary of State may by order amend Part 1 or this Part for the purpose of preventing or reducing any infringement of copyright by means of the internet if satisfied that (a) the infringement is having a serious adverse effect on businesses or consumers, and (b) making the amendment is a proportionate way to address that effect."

Read that carefully and you will see that copyright law can be changed now if needed by "businesses or consumers". Well what about artists? They are the one copyright protects not the big business labels! But that is exactly the issue that has been perverted.

We are still getting no where in the label's fight against progress in the music industry, where big labels today ask artists to sign away their (song and recording) copyrights in return for promotion, and to enable labels to hand onto the distribution channels (CD, MP3, iTunes etc) and make huge profits.

What has to happen is the industry must move on and promote what artists and consumers want: promotion and sales direct on the internet. Cutting out the labels, the collection agencies and all those people who take 90% of CD costs and put it in their own pockets and give artists just 10%. In no other industry does the core business get rewarded so little.

Again I encourage you to support artists and complain to your politician. Tell him the government doesn't get it, and must not pass this bill which just goes to support a dying business model and does not support artists. What is needed is a bill that supports artists and the development of new, legal, easy ways to download quality music. One we will all willingly support.

SUPPORT

And by the way guess who has publicly supported this bill: here are the names

Brendan Barber TUC, Kim Bayley Entertainment Retailers Association, Tony Burke Unite, Lavinia Carey BVA, Phil Clapp Cinema Exhibitors' Association, David Collier England and Wales Cricket Board, Simon Juden Publishers Association, Chris Marcich MPA, John McVay Pact, Gerry Morrissey Bectu, Fran Nevrkla PPL, Christine Payne Equity, Kieron Sharp Fact, Michelle Stanistreet NUJ, Richard Scudamore Premier League, John Smith Musicians Union, Geoff Taylor BPI

That is all industry, but not a single artist.

VAT

and don't let's forget that for each CD sold the Government gets £2.50/album VAT. If CDs die and music is sold at a realistic price on the internet, this cold be reduced to £0.5/album or so...