Mike Butcher

[Copyright conference coverage]: Peter Jenner, of Sincere Management, one time manager of Pink Floyd and now Billy Bragg, said we all “need” copyright. But there are differences between the creator and the investor. “The creator is often used as the fig leaf for the investors greed.” Very few artists get royalties – “I’m unhappy with the way the total amount of money that comes into the industry, a small amount is spent of the creative writers and musicians – most is spent on marketing, mindless meetings etc. That’s why remuneration with PPL is good, because performers get paid irrespective of what was spent. The DMCA only applies to non-interactive music, so all the interesting stuuf the Net can do is not covered. So the record companies are anxious to hold onto their rights, and be very inflexible. I don’t believe in the physical ownership of music, I believe in the celestial jukebox. iTunes sales have levelled out because the price is too high. At least in Europe we understand the concept of collecting money for actual performance. We need honest and transparent collection societies.