Global Artists' Issues: focus on international arts organizations
in cra-briefings35 · March 01, 2006
INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF MUSICIANS
www.fim-musicians.com—The International Federation of Musicians (FIM) was founded in 1948 and is now recognized as the leading international organization representing musicians. FIM states that its main objective is to protect and further the economic, social and artistic interests of musicians globally. In furthering this objective, it has become active in a number of international projects, having acquired NGO status at UNESCO as well as the International Labour Office (ILO), WIPO and the United Nations. Their work at UNESCO has involved consultation on the drafts of the newly launched treaty on cultural diversity, the Convention for the Protection of Diversity of Cultural Contents and Artistic Expression. FIM has also been involved in consultations with the Council of Europe, the European Council, and the European Parliament. FIM supports the development of music organizations in countries around the world, and in recent years has encouraged the establishment of regional organizations in Africa and Latin America. Projects are not limited to the developing world, however, as FIM has also been actively involved with the defence of musicians’ rights in well-established and otherwise affluent jurisdictions like the United States. Recently, music unions there had to take action to ensure that taped music did not replace live musicians in Radio City Music Hall’s annual Christmas Spectacular. The American unions were supported in this effort by RIM. In addition to its work on fair contract and legislative rights for individual artists, the FIM has worked to educate creators on the current challenges and changes facing the cultural industries, and the repercussions of both globalization and digitization on the creative professions. This work has included the presentation of conferences on subjects like the use of P2P services.
CREATORS’ RIGHTS ALLIANCE—UNITED KINGDOM
www.creatorsrights.org.uk—The Creators’ Rights Alliance UK is a group of 16 national organizations representing creators working in the media marketplace (mainly broadcasting, film and publishing) in the United Kingdom and Ireland. As an alliance of media unions and collectives, it campaigns against the erosion of income and loss of rights experienced by freelance professional working in the newspaper, magazine and broadcasting sectors. It works to defend and improve creators’ rights and to promote the understanding and recognition of these rights in the industry and with the public. The CRA UK is particularly concerned about the impact of large media corporations on professional standards, and focus on the imbalance of power between individual creators and the producing / distribution companies offering them contracts. In response to this situation, the CRA UK has been negotiating with broadcasters, publishers and producers, pressuring them to adopt fair and equitable terms in licenses that do not require creators to waive their moral rights, for example, and allow creators to retain rights over secondary uses. In arguing its position, CRA UK uses human rights language, something that is proving to be a point of controversy on the international arena where pharmaceutical companies have similarly claimed IP rights to be human rights. A summary of the issues being addressed by the CRA UK can be found in their submission to the Culture Media and Sport Committee of the House of Commons that is conducting an Inquiry into the New Media and Creative Industries. In terms of future development CRA UK stresses the importance of preserving viable old models while creating new ones that ensure creators are rewarded fairly for their work and are treated with respect, and which will ensure the opportunity for the development of new talent. The Committee has highlighted the following as the issues currently facing creators and creative industries:
- Moral rights
- Impact of plagiarism
- Management of rights in a digital age
- As these relate to illegal posting of protected content
- As these relate to publishers requesting extensive assignment of rights
Specific attention is paid to issues that creators are facing in terms of their negotiating power in the media marketplace. As individuals creators are generally in a weak position as compared to the parties that are seeking the rights to their works. The CRA points to the practices of organizations like the BBC and Financial Times which present non-negotiable contracts to freelancers, and Oxford University Press and the Condenast publishing empire which offer contracts that call for a blanket assignment of rights. CRA UK and its members have raised concerns about the impact these contracts have on the secondary income of creators, and have been particularly critical of the public broadcaster for shirking its obligation to be a fair employer. CRA UK has also been vocal in its opposition of the new Creative Archive and the Creative Archive Licence Group, projects designed to make archival audio/visual material in public collections (including those of the BBC, the British Film Institute, and the Learning Channel) available to the general public. It has been critical of these projects for a number of reasons, including the lack of communication with creator groups, and for failing to develop a responsible attitude about copyright with the general public, particularly through use of slogans like “find it, rip it, mix it, share it”.