Authors’ Rights
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Foster called on everyone attending the three-day International Federation Of Journalists' conference at the British Library to write to new BBC director-general Greg Dyke saying "they are disturbed to learn that the world-renowned BBC is stealing journalists' copyright" via all-rights contracts thrust on to contributors on a take it or leave it basis. He said it would be a long haul, but referred to the Guardian negotiation and ACAS enquiry as an example of how progress could be made through persistence. |
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He added, "If we arrive at the situation where creators perceive the norm as stealing, then we're in a bit of trouble." Foster also said that, for authors' rights/copyright to be fully protected from companies greedy for supposed riches from ownership of "intellectual property" in the internet era, changes in UK law were essential. The exclusion of staff from copyright ownership had to end and all authors' rights, economic and moral, must be deemed "inalienable" so that they could not be removed even by signing a contract - because the contract itself would be illegal. |
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On this, Howells would say no more than that he was
"open to suggestions coming from you". But he continued with a
challenge: "I get hundreds of letters because of my
responsibilities for consumer affairs, for corporate affairs, for
competition; I get very few letters from your members. If you
want us to sit up and take notice then let us know." In his speech and responses to questions, Howells repeated the government proposal to make copyright a school curriculum subject so that future generations would have more understanding of the value of copyright and the damage done to the economy and to individual creators by abusing it (whether by buying a pirated watch or downloading unpaid-for music off the web in MP3 format). "Those who steal intellectual property rights slice away at the vital undergrowth of creativity in this country," he said. |
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Foster replied, "Thanks for that. It doesn't feel to members of the NUJ as if we are in the lead in this campaign. It feels like we're miles back down the road. "But at least, where copyright used to be a freelance issue, now because of the work of the Freelance Industrial Council we know it's an issue for all journalists and beyond that for all creators and ultimately for the whole of society." Unions generally presume that it's up to journalists and other workers to shovel some sand in the cogs of advancing multi-media globalisation. But Arne Ruth proved that even executives can take a stand. |
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He saw it as a "concentration of power issue" and concluded that such monopoly ownership of Sweden's quality dailies would lead to more self-censorship by journalists afraid to rock the only boat available, to more "pack journalism" and an all-round loss of integrity and in-depth analysis. Ruth, now professor of journalism at Stockholm University, argued that ownership of copyright by individual journalists, staff or freelance and of all disciplines, is one defence against the essentially corruptive power of huge media companies in the digital era. "Properly controlled, electronic media can be used to distribute the power of the media corporations. It can complete the process that began with the printing press and confirm the right of everyone to obtain information and protect their work." |
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Mercifully, the cold-print delusion of grandeur came with a New York twinkle in the eye. Nonetheless, Summit 2000 did conclude by converting itself into Campaign 2000 with an Agenda For Action which, if executed as drafted, should sort the whole thing out in weeks. Decades seems the better bet, though. As Tasini said, "The key question is, what is do-able? Of course, we can put up great ideas which we can't fund and where we don't have people to do the work ... " |
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To this end, Aidan White announced that the IFJ would be
appointing one full-time worker to co-ordinate the campaign and
devoutly hoped that member unions would all pitch in to play
their part in the strategy culled from the Summit's three
day-long workshops on Ethics Quality And Authors' Rights,
Collective Bargaining And Contractual Models and Global Legal
Landscape And Harmonisation. Some key points being:
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Soundbites"Our rights as authors are essential to what we do," said Christopher Warren, the IFJ's Australian President, opening the conference. "The abridgement of those rights denies what we do and who we are." |
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| Philip Jennings, general-secretary of Union Network International
Photo © 2000 Kevin Cooper |
| "Fundamentally creators' rights are workers' rights are democratic rights," said Philip Jennings, general-secretary of Union Network International, a worldwide combine of communications and commerce unions. Adding that he realised these rights were more disrespected in the UK than anywhere else in Europe, he pledged UNI to support the endeavours of authors organisations to "protect and promote" their members' copyright, especially in digital media - although he did also proffer a reminder of access problems that barred the internet, for better or worse, to the "half of the world's population that has never made a phone call". |
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| Martin Beckett, AoP
Photo © 2000 Kevin Cooper |
| On the BBC's institutional rights-grabbing "culture", Martin Beckett, from the Association of Photographers, and also president of the visual workers' international CIAGP and the photographers' international Pyramide, said: "I'm normally very nice but this makes me bloody angry. The letters from them are so arrogant! What we have to do is go and kick arse." |
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| Anne Louise Schelin (L) and Linda Foley
Photo © 2000 Kevin Cooper |
| Brazil's Francisco Sant'Anna said: "I come from a part of the world where intellectual property means magazines are more expensive, books are more expensive - it means the rights of big company owners, not of individual creators. How can we develop authors' rights with a social vision?" The tough question went largely unanswered, but Danish Union of Journalists head of secretariat Anne Louise Schelin did state that, according to her researches, "Material never gets cheaper where the producers or publishers, rather than the authors, own copyright". |
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| Comparing authors' rights in journalism to the controversies over
patenting genetically modified seeds and its economic effects,
for instance in India, NUJ copyright consultant Carol Lee argued
that "Author's rights is a shape-of-the-world issue".
Photo © 2000 Kevin Cooper |
| Aidan White, IFJ general secretary, said: "Media corporations are presenting the issue as if we, the creators, are the problem because, apparently, in requiring payment for uses of our work we restrict freedom of information." |
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August Ringvold from Norway told the Authors'
Rights Summit about their struggle with the daily newspaper publishers.
His T-shirt carries the slogan "share, don't steal"
- in Norwegian, oddly enough. The "§46" refers to section 46 of the Norwegian union's old house agreement with the newspaper publishers, covering Authors' Rights. They balloted on a strike, but achieved a reasonable agreement, with an
authors' rights clause, without. Photo © 2000 Kevin Cooper |
| "Not everyone is willing to fight," warned Mette Curdt from the Danish Journalists Union. "They have to put meals on the table every day. So in Denmark we have offered compensation to the freelance members of the union if they lose work through refusing to sign all-rights contracts." |
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| Bernt Hugenholtz
Photo © 2000 Kevin Cooper |
| Bernt Hugenholtz, a Dutch professor of law, presented a glum view of the EU draft copyright directive coincidentally published on the final day of the Summit: "The European Federation of Journalists has got it wrong. The copyright directive is not good for journalists. It is not about protecting authors, it is about protecting the Time Warners and Bertelsmanns of this world. What does it say about the despicable practice of all rights taken on an 'offer you can't refuse' basis? It doesn't deal with it. It does not affect contracts, so it does not affect the right of companies to rob you of your rights." |
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Last modified: 22 Jul 2000
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