Valuing Creative Excellence
The PMA submission to the All Party Internet Group
regarding DRM and its associated issues
13th January 2006
______________________________________________________________________________ ‘…we also need to make sure that our creative businesses have the necessary protection to make returns on their creativity and invest in new talent and innovation…’ (Recommendations of the Creative Industries Forum on Intellectual Property – Government Response).
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Background
Who we are
The PMA (Personal Managers’ Association), was established more than 50 years ago, as a trade association of literary and theatrical agents. Our members manage the careers of the full range of talent integral to the film, television, theatre, radio and advertising businesses including writers, directors, actors, producers and those working behind the camera, including directors of photography, editors, production designers and composers. Our members’ clients represent the Who’s Who of the media business, whether Kiera Knightley, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Ricky Gervais, Andrew Davies, Sir Michael Caine, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Curtis or Sam Mendes. Much of this submission is dedicated to our concern for future generations of such talent as well as those whose work we all already value and enjoy.
What we do
The PMA has been involved in collective bargaining negotiations across the industry including the BBC Writers’ Television and Radio Agreements (for which we are co-signatories), and all the other Equity and Writers Guild Agreements with the BBC, ITV, PACT and others. We have strong productive relationships with, amongst others, Equity (the Actors’ Union), the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, the Society of Authors, the Directors’ Guild, PACT and the ALCS.
Present and future media landscape
We have read with great interest many of the studies and industry papers and we join with all parties in recognising the vital role, both cultural and economic, of the creative industries. It is crucial to continue to build on current growth and to embrace future technological developments. We believe that DRM is a fundamentally important aspect of the way forward provided it is harnessed rightly and responsibly as part of new business models.
All of the PMA’s members work daily (on behalf of our clients) in pursuit and negotiation of contracts in the creative industries. We are at the coalface of the current opportunities as well as of the threats facing those who earn their livings from the performance and creation of copyrightable material. More than most we are experts in how these livelihoods are earned and how they can be protected.
We have grave but sober concerns that unless our members’ clients are adequately and reasonably protected, the strength of the UK media industry will ultimately be diminished, both creatively and economically, as a result of the industry being unable to sustain the very people who are involved in creating it. This would be enormously damaging to the new generation, who are also the
beneficiaries of improved access. DRM must play its part in striking the right balance.
We feel that proper understanding of how a healthy creative community is sustained, how writers, actors, directors et al earn their livelihoods in film and TV, and how the advent of new media is currently threatening these livelihoods, is absolutely crucial to any informed discussion about the interconnectedness of Intellectual Property rights, the Creative Industries and the optimum use of DRM. We also relish the chance to explore the opportunities that the new platforms bring and exploring how DRM can help to adequately recompense creators.
The PMA is keen to work with all broadcasters and with PACT to establish the appropriate new DRM-supported business models. However, the committee should be made aware of the tremendous pressures currently being put on our members, their clients and the creative unions, by broadcasters and by productions companies, to approve agreements that are gradual erosions of their rights.
The PMA believes that a healthy and successful BBC is important for the well being of the industry as a whole and is working with it for the benefit of our clients. However, we feel strongly that The BBC, in pursuit of its public service remit, has proceeded to put pressure on our clients to relinquish rights to enable it to trial internet exploitation, mobile downloads and streaming on demand with too little understanding of the impact that such exploitation may have on established methods of exploitation and revenue sources. Without robust definitions of old and new services, we are concerned that broadcasters in general are able to exploit loopholes in existing and perhaps outdated definitions of methods of exploitation, and consequently fail to adequately compensate our clients for these new methods of exploitation. Absolute clarity is essential to the DRM future.
In addition the approvals processes for the exploitation of new media must be transparent, robust and impartial and a proper fair trading analysis must be conducted in order to assess the impact of new media on exisiting methods of exploitation and revenue streams derived therefrom.
We believe that the BBC and other broadcasters must be subject to regulations governing how they will operate within the new order and that clear revenue sharing models must be implemented in order to replace revenue streams that may be eroded by new methods of exploitation. We also believe that this governance process must be conducted on an independent arms length basis. Against this background, it is the belief of the PMA that DRM will be essential in order to protect the interests of rightsholders, and that there must be an obligation on broadcasters to use DRM for the exploitation of copyrightable material in new media.
Education
We are heartened that the Government gave IP issues due prominence with the presidency event ‘The Creative Conference’ and share the conviction expressed there that IP education is essential.
However, we are deeply concerned that the complex challenges of educating consumers (of all ages) are currently being met in a very confused, conflicting and crude way. For example, in relation to the BBC’s Creative Archive (set up in partnership with the BFI, C4 and the Open University) an overly wide invitation to consumers to reconfigure (‘cut rip mix’ to quote the BBC) existing works does not encourage consumers to understand creators rights UNLESS it is coupled with adequate and persuasive education. It is essential to persuade consumers of the benefits of supporting professional creativity and of enhancing professional industries, regardless of whether those consumers want to work within the creative industries or enjoy its fruits. The drive to ‘share’ copyright material WITHOUT due education and protection, will discourage the truly talented from entering or remaining in the industry as they see their rights and income being eroded.
We believe that the new content sharing licenses and any examination of copyright law can only be considered in conjunction with detail understanding of the professions and sectors that depend upon them, without which the UK’s fine creative industries would be irreversibly damaged.
None of the above contradicts or undermines the PMA’s conviction that there needs to be a fresh look at the concept of fair use, most particularly for educational purposes and how DRM will best support any changes in current legislation or practice. We also recognise that the changes in technology bring ground-breaking and potentially lucrative opportunities.
We believe that an opportunity to present our position in greater detail to the All Party Internet Group could add considerably to the strength of future business models.
Lyndsey Posner Michelle Kass
For and on behalf of the PMA
Personal Managers’ Association 1 Summer Road East Moseley Surrey KT8 9LX
Tel/Fax: 020 8398 9796
