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ConferenceCompensation Decentral
Session 4
Compensation Decentral
Friday 04.06. 17.00 - 19.30 / Semperdepot, Prospekthof
What are the new models and alternatives for a direct beyond the big gatekeepers of the music industry? With only 5% percent of the value going to the creators, there are chances to cut out the media cartels to achieve a fair compensation for artists and a broad distribution of "stuff". What are existing examples and what should we learn from the experiences being made. To reclaim utopias in defense of the imagination might provide enough room for manoeuvre to allow the emergence of new practices beyond the all too real dystopias of digital restrictions at the end of the world as we know it.
Participants
Volker Grassmuck: In Favor of Collectively Managed Online Rights
Commons aspects are an inherent part of copyright. Where property
control over the use of works proved infeasible or undesirable,
Continental European lawmakers granted statutory permission to these
uses and put a levy on devices and services as compensation to the
authors. This system that worked well for forty years holds the
solution for the digital online realm as well. What can not be
controlled by means of technology and law enforcement must be
permitted by law. A new levy on Internet access collectively managed
by a new online collecting society provides compensation to authors.
The result: works can freely circulate online, and the creatives
receive a fair remuneration.
Volker Grassmuck (DE)
Kristin Thomson: Collecting Coins out of the Celestial Jukebox
Alternative Compensation Systems, or ACS, is an idea that has been gaining a foothold in the academic and legal community in the past few years. The basic theory involves the creation of a pool of money collected through consumer-end taxes or fees on peer-to-peer enabling services. This pooled money would be distributed to copyright holders and creators based on popularity of songs traded on peer-to-peer networks such as KaZaa and Bearshare, where music is already being traded freely. The legal authority to distribute songs would be achieved through the creation of a compulsory license. Other papers propose that participation in the system would be voluntary and would, hypothetically, shield participants - both the P2P network and the consumer - from copyright infringement lawsuits. The papers written on this topic to date each address these facets in a variety of ways, from the collection of money (should it be a consumer end tax? part of your DSL or cable bill? a pseudo-subscription fee collected by the P2P network providers?), to the measurement of songs shared (survey versus census?), to the licensing arrangements (compulsory license? voluntary participation?). The Future of Music Coalition's primary concern lies at the end of the process - the distribution of revenues to creators and copyright holders. At the conference, Kristin will outline some of the challenges associated with the creation of a reliable and accurate system under which artists would be paid, especially the comparison of proposals against existing revenue distribution models. She will also discuss the impact of commercial digital services such as iTunes and Real's Rhapsody from the musician/indie label perspective.
Kristin Thomson (US)
Wendy Selzer: Voluntary Alternative Compensation Systems
Wendy Selzer (US)
Bjoern Hartmann: Netlabels vs. Brick-and-Mortar-Distribution
His talk will compare and contrast his experience within two spheres of the contemporary electronic music industry - the traditional offline channels for vinyl/cd publishing and online netlabels. He will present problems and perspectives for artists as well as independent label owners, focusing on on the central issue of fair compensation for both parties. As an affiliate of Creative Commons, he will also highlight the importance of balanced copyright protection to the artistic community.
Bjoern Hartmann (DE/FR)
Respondent: Karsten Kinsat
Karsten Kinast (AT)
