Musicians’ Unions speak out over copyright law changes

Musicians’ organisations have spoken out against the Government’s announcement of a private copyright concession making it legal to copy music from CDs onto other devices. The Musicians’ Union (MU) and British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors have raised the issue of fair payment for their members highlighting that although the relaxed copyright laws were triggered in a majority of EU member states, they were introduced with a compensation scheme for artists.  John Smith, Secretary General of the MU, said that although he appreciated the law change was consistent with consumer behaviour, companies making music players could play their part in compensating musicians: “These manufacturers are already paying for patents on each device sold, and yet the act of copying onto these devices the ‘software’ the consumer is most interested in – music – is not currently generating any income for musicians, unless it is through legitimate download purchases. This hardly seems fair – after all, what use is an iPod or an mp3 player without the music?”