Pink Floyd manager calls for copyright law overhaul

Peter Jenner says that when it comes to copyright, "the law is broken"

Peter Jenner, Pink Floyd manager and emeritus president of the International Music Managers’ Forum (IMMF), claims that when it comes to copyright in the UK, “the law is broken”. He suggested that copyright law must be rebuilt from scratch, particularly in today’s digital world where we “cannot control the right to copy”.

Jenner was speaking at the Westminster eForum’s seminar, aimed at discussing proposals to tackle illegal file-sharing as Ofcom consults on the next steps for implementing the Digital Economy Act.

However, the controversy surrounding the legislation shows no signs of abating.

He explained that the marginal cost of music – that is, the change in total cost that arises when the quantity produced changes by one unit – is currently zero, as each illegally shared file is distributed for free and has no retail value.

“The consumer is no longer a 'consumer' because they are actually increasing supply by making a copy, rather than 'consuming' anything,” said Jenner.

“How can we resolve the essential relationship between creator and consumer? The public has an inexhaustible demand for new content and the creators want to go on creating [but need to make money].”

He claims that the answer lies within record companies exploring licensing models.

“If every person in the UK pays £1 a month for music, this would equate to £720m per year for the price of music. That’s almost as much as the music industry is making and is not a huge challenge,” he said. “We need to get rid of exclusive rights for content and concentrate on remuneration rights.”

His sentiments were echoed by the Featured Artists Coalition’s acting CEO Dr Jeremy Silver who called for a complete overhaul of copyright legislation, because controlling the right to copy is becoming “unenforceable”.

He also spoke of a compulsory collective licence model, much like that used to fund the BBC, but admitted that this model would have to be applicable on a global scale in order to be successful.

However, Simon Milner, BT’s director of Group Industry Policy, said that such a model would be impossible to implement in practice.

“I don’t think this is a resolution, it would become too complicated,” he said.

“This isn’t something that can be solved; all we can do is try to curb the impact of file-sharing and that is something that content providers need to work on competitively by creating better business models, rather than collectively.”