Regulating for creativity and cultural diversity:The case of collective management organisations and the music industry

This paper explores the role of intermediary institutions in promoting creativity and cultural diversity in the music industry, and the impact of cultural policy on the performance of those intermediaries. It reviews some of the existing literature on the relationship between economic conditions and innovation in music, and argues that too little attention has been paid to intermediaries. Focusing on collective management organisations (CMOs) as one example of overlooked intermediaries, we illustrate, by way of comparison, the different priorities and incentives that drive CMO practice. These variations, we suggest, are important to appreciating how CMOs operate as intermediaries in different territories. We then turn our attention to recent attempts by the EU to reform CMO practice as part of its Digital Single Market project. The fact that the CMO has been an object of reform is indicative of its importance. However, there is more at stake here: the reforms themselves, in seeking to change the role and behaviour of CMOs will, we suggest, have profound consequences for the market in music in Europe, and for creativity and cultural diversity within that marke

Regulating collective management organisations by competition: An incomplete answer to the licensing problem?

While the three functions of Collective Management Organisations - to licence use, monitor use, and to collect and distribute the revenue - have traditionally been accepted as a progression towards a natural (national) monopoly, digital exploitation of music may no longer lead to such a fate. The European Commission has challenged the traditional structures through reforms that increase the degree of competition. This paper asks whether the reforms have had the desired effect and shows, through qualitative research, that at least regarding the streaming of music, competition has not delivered. Part of the reason for this may be that the services required by the now competing CMOs have changed

Time For Change: The Importance of Copyright for Manga and Anime

Copyright law is key to the creative industries and plays a vital role in shaping the relationships between authors, commercial intermediaries, and audiences. However, the law significantly deviates from the social norms and expectations prevalent in the creative industries, leading to under-researched but key areas of misunderstanding and conflict.This article seeks to address this gap by providing a copyright law starting-point for those interested in the creative industries. First, this article provides a basic overview of copyright law and its features; in particular, how it applies to manga and anime. Second, the effect of copyright on the marketization and exploitation of copyright works is outlined. This includes the law\u27s effect on manga and anime distribution patterns, the role of digital rights management in shaping market structures, and the gap between fan expectations and what is legally permissible.This article argues that more interdisciplinary work connecting legal scholarship to the humanities is urgently required to address these gaps between the law, social norms and expectations to the benefit of a more effective copyright law, flourishing industries, and active fan engagement

The evolution of copyright policies (1880-2010) : a comparison between Germany, the UK, the US and the international level

The conventional wisdom on the evolution of copyright and what has shaped it has come under increasing strain in recent years. As technical innovation pushes for reforms, the results are increasingly subject to political debate and tension. Examining how copyright has evolved and what has driven the process is of key importance because of the economic importance of copyright to individual countries. In the light of this and to contribute to possible solutions, it is necessary to examine what or who has driven the process. To do this, the evolution of copyright polices has to be mapped in a comparative way. This thesis examines the evolution of copyright in Germany, the US, the UK and at an international level between 1880 and 2010. The analysis itself is split between the culture and stringency of policies. Culture refers to the overall approach to copyright while stringency covers the scope of protection. This approach is original because it allows for a comparison of copyright systems as neutrally as possible. The results are clearly quantifiable and more importantly the extent of evolutions is directly comparable. Furthermore, the nature of the data ensures that causal forces behind the pattern can be examined. This methodology will be applied to a number of propositions commonly found in the copyright literature. The focal point here will be on arguments of rising stringency levels over time and the cultural convergence between case studies. For these, the commonly argued causal forces, in particular technological innovation and the influence exercised by individual actors will be examined. The results show that neither the cultural or stringency evolutionary pattern nor the causal factors fully matches previous studies. First, the evolution of stringency levels has been more complex than previously argued. In addition, although there has been some degree of cultural convergence, this has not been caused by technology and even the influence of particular actors has been limited. In both cases, it is clear that the role of copyright exemptions has been under-theorised. (Data relating to the appendices were submitted as separate files which could not be uploaded to the repository. Please contact the author for more information

Missing the point- the disappointed hope of self- publishing authors

Trade book publishing is characterised by authors with weaker bargaining power than the commercial intermediaries, including publishers and distributors. One key solution representing the empowerment of authors is self-publishing works, thereby cutting out the gatekeeper. However, self-publication has failed to improve the position of authors: their incomes continue to fall across the sector. Using social network analysis as well as industry practices, this article examines UK trade book publishing dynamics. It argues that the reason for the self-publication route’s ‘underperformance’ is structural, explained by a realistic view of the publishing sector and the relationships it entails. The self- publishing author is shown to have little information and bargaining power, while self-published books are subject to inherent commercial limitations. The wider structural impact of market concentration in book distribution is clarified. The findings suggest that solutions need to combine copyright with competition law interventions as bargaining and market issues require different but coherently designed remedies

Regulating Collective Management Organisations by Competition: An Incomplete Answer to the Licensing Problem?

While the three functions of Collective Management Organisations - to licence use, monitor use, and to collect and distribute the revenue - have traditionally been accepted as a progression towards a natural (national) monopoly, digital exploitation of music may no longer lead to such a fate. The European Commission has challenged the traditional structures through reforms that increase the degree of competition. This paper asks whether the reforms have had the desired effect and shows, through qualitative research, that at least regarding the streaming of music, competition has not delivered. Part of the reason for this may be that the services required by the now competing CMOs have changed

Eine Öffentliche Zentralbibliothek für Dresden?: Ein „Palast“ wird saniert für Philharmonie und Bibliothek

Der Stadtrat der Landeshauptstadt Dresden hat bereits im Juli 2008 beschlossen, den städtischen Kulturpalast zu sanieren und nach einem neuen Nutzungskonzept umzubauen. Bisher bietet dieser mit seinem Mehrzwecksaal sowohl der Dresdner Philharmonie (mit erlebbar und anerkannt schlechten akustischen Bedingungen) als auch diversen Veranstaltern der „heiteren Muse“ ein Zuhause. Das neue Konzept sieht eine Konzentration der musikalischen Nutzung auf die Philharmonie vor sowie eine gleichzeitige Funktionserweiterung durch den Einzug der Zentralbibliothek der Städtischen Bibliotheken Dresden und des Kabaretts „Die Herkuleskeule“. Politisch heftig diskutiert, findet das Projekt die Zustimmung einer knappen Mehrheit der Dresdner. Laut verschiedener Umfragen der ortsansässigen Tageszeitungen wird der Umbau von knapp 60% der Dresdner Bürger unterstützt

The politics of the digital single market:Culture vs. competition vs. copyright

This paper examines the implications for European music culture of the European Union’s Digital Single Market strategy. It focuses on the regulatory framework being created for the management of copyright policy, and in particular the role played by Collective Management Organisations (or Collecting Societies). One of the many new opportunities created by digitalization has been the music streaming services. These depend on consumers being able to access music wherever they are, but such a system runs counter to the management of rights on a national basis and through collecting organisations who act as monopolies within their own territories. The result has been ‘geo-blocking’. The EU has attempted to resolve this problem in a variety of ways, most recently in a Directive designed to reform the CMOs. In this paper, we document these various efforts, showing them to be motivated by a deep-seated and persisting belief in the capacity of ‘competition’ to resolve problems that, we argue, actually lie elsewhere - in copyright policy itself. The result is that the EU’s intervention fails to address its core concern and threatens the diversity of European music culture by rewarding those who are already commercially successful

Collective Management Organisations, Creativity and Cultural Diversity

‘Somewhere right now, in this country, a young person is scribbling on a scrap of paper or tapping on a keyboard, composing a song that will resonate far beyond the page. The industry may change, but that simple act of creativity remains, and will always remain, immortal and timeless’ (Feargal Sharkey, Chief Executive, UK Music, 2010) The quotation above from Feargal Sharkey, former lead singer of the Undertones, appears in the Foreword to UK Music’s Liberating Creativity policy statement. The document captures a familiar dilemma. On the one hand, Sharkey-the-romantic holds dear to the belief that there is something magical or mystical about the act of creativity, a moment in which an individual, or small group of individuals, are inspired to create. On the other hand, there is Sharkey-the-lobbyist arguing for the need for government intervention and investment for the purpose of ‘liberating creativity’. Sharkey is by no means alone in wanting to combine these two thoughts. But can they be? What contribution does public policy intervention make to creativity? Does it liberate it, or stifle it? This is a familiar question, to which there are many answers. We discuss some of these below, but our main concern is with the contribution to creativity of a particular institution – the Collective Management Organisation (CMO)1, and the public policy designed to regulate its performance. We also concentrate on a single sector of the creative industries: the music industry. In doing this, we examine the European Union’s attempt to reform the CMO in the name of creativity (among other goals), and we compare the performance of CMOs in different national settings. Our argument is that, by these two routes, we can contribute to an understanding of the part played by public policy and institutional intermediaries in fostering creativity. This narrowing of the focus is necessary for any reasonable answer to the question as to what a particular policy regime and its component intermediaries contribute to creative culture. Key to the operation of such a regime is the management of copyright, and our analysis is concerned with how intermediaries themselves understand and justify their contribution – for example, it is notable how the word ‘creativity’ is often parsed as ‘cultural diversity’, a rather different, if equally important, goal. In what follows we begin by justifying our emphasis upon the CMO, a justification that is couched both in terms of the neglect to which CMOs have been subject and the importance that they are assuming in a digital economy (Towse, 2013). This importance is recognized by the EU in its recent Directive on CMO reform (2014/26/EU), and by the recommendations of inquiries – like that by Ian Hargreaves (2011) – for greater transparency, among other things, in CMO practice. We also consider other attempts to reveal the role played by institutions and institutional structures in facilitating creativity, and the problems entailed in measuring the key terms and identifying the key causal mechanisms. 1 Collective Management Organisations are also referred to as Collecting Societies, Authors Societies and Performing Rights Organisations

Inclusive search for same-sign dilepton signatures in pp collisions at root s=7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

An inclusive search is presented for new physics in events with two isolated leptons (e or mu) having the same electric charge. The data are selected from events collected from p p collisions at root s = 7 TeV by the ATLAS detector and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 34 pb(-1). The spectra in dilepton invariant mass, missing transverse momentum and jet multiplicity are presented and compared to Standard Model predictions. In this event sample, no evidence is found for contributions beyond those of the Standard Model. Limits are set on the cross-section in a fiducial region for new sources of same-sign high-mass dilepton events in the ee, e mu and mu mu channels. Four models predicting same-sign dilepton signals are constrained: two descriptions of Majorana neutrinos, a cascade topology similar to supersymmetry or universal extra dimensions, and fourth generation d-type quarks. Assuming a new physics scale of 1 TeV, Majorana neutrinos produced by an effective operator V with masses below 460 GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level. A lower limit of 290 GeV is set at 95% confidence level on the mass of fourth generation d-type quarks