Pro-Music Alliance: Quotes

FIM: MUSICIANS AGAINST PIRACY

"The International Federation of Musicians (FIM) is the longest established and most comprehensive international organisation representing musicians in all genres of music. It has been fully involved in protecting musicians' interests in all the developments arising from digital technology including the internet and associated communications technologies.

Musicians generally have welcomed these developments but have sought - and continue to seek - a fair framework of legal protection and related statutory rights to enable them to practise their profession and continue to develop their skills and talents. Most fair-minded music lovers recognise that music performers, composers, producers and associated creative and technical contributors to music on the web and in the home need to be properly rewarded for their efforts in order that music can continue to develop and new artistes and works can flourish.

Piracy - which includes free downloading - undermines all this and threatens the future of music. The International Federation of Musicians (FIM) and its member organisations throughout the world join with the other creative interests in a campaign to awaken public interest in these issues and to call on all legislators to provide a satisfactory national and international legal framework to safeguard new music, new markets and new consumer satisfaction.

Piracy is the major threat to creativity and tomorrow's music and musicians."

John Morton, President - FIM

GERA - Europe

"The damage caused by online piracy extends to the entertainment retail sector, not least because the access to pirated content or unauthorised services affects the demand for and sale of legitimate content. These illegal sales and copying activities are one of the reasons that hundreds of small stores have been forced to close over the past years. The Pro-music campaign is extremely timely as piracy is damaging not only to the music industry, but also the entire entertainment sector and certainly the business of entertainment retailing. Retailers cannot compete with pirates and something needs to be done."

Simon Wright, President of GERA - Europe

GIART

"GIART, the International Organisation of Performing Artists, strongly supports Pro-music as an important educational initiative addressed to everyone who likes music. It should help people understand that performing artists need protection in the online world.

Music piracy has increased to unprecedented levels. It has a terrible impact on the whole music sector and especially on artists. Many legitimate services offering music downloads have been created that can by used by everyone who loves music, without any risk of infecting their computers with viruses.

Performers invite their fans to support them by buying their music so they have the opportunity to go on creating."

IFPI

"The recent success of new, legitimate online music sites is proof that if it's done right, music consumers want to get their music in a way that rewards the artists and creators - that is, by paying for it.

Unfortunately, there are still people out there who are unaware of the facts. They may have no idea what effect copying and distributing music without permission will have on the music they love, or that they're breaking the law.

And yet by turning a blind eye to the consequences of copyright infringement, people are hurting music. These include the many hundreds of employees at the retail stores that will close down due to a drop in sales; the hundreds of artists who won't get a record deal because of cutbacks of record company rosters; the thousands of people doing regular jobs, such as the sound engineers and the CD factory workers who are at risk; the people trying to build legitimate music services, develop payment systems and manage complex protection issues in the face of competition from the 'free' music infringers who have sidestepped all those complex processes; and everyone else in the chain of creation, production and distribution of music.

These people are all potential victims. Music is more vulnerable now than ever.

'To Promote and Protect Music': these are the aims of Pro-music. We will do this by arming people with the facts - about the work that goes into music, about what the industry is doing to get music legitimately on the internet, about the copyright laws that are so important to everyone in the music world."

Jay Berman, Chairman and CEO of IFPI

IMMF (International Music Managers Forum)

"The IMMFrepresents the interests of music managers, and by extension their 'featured artist' clients, at the global level; our membership, the national associations of music managers in many countries, represent the same interests to their respective local governments. The organisation aims to help managers be more successful in representing their artist-clients through training and capacity-building initiatives, by actively participating in the work of multilateral processes and organisations, which help develop norms in the copyright field, and through facilitating information sharing between managers worldwide.

We have become increasingly concerned as the public debate about the piracy of music has almost entirely focused on the economic losses which holders of rights are experiencing, to the detriment of discussions about what Copyright actually is, and the irreplaceable service that it provides to the whole world.

Copyright is what makes it possible for music to reach a global audience. It gives creators incentives to create the culture, which we all enjoy, through recognition and fair rewards for their work. Because of copyright, creators have a say in how their works are disseminated. This active participation by the creators in decisions about the use of their works allows a just balance to be struck between the essential economic return for their work, and the public enjoyment of the cultural, knowledge, and entertainment value of their music throughout the world.

All of us who love music must help the public, and the creative community, understand these facts, and that it is quite simply impossible to support music and simultaneously to steal it. Music has been called the Soundtrack Of Our Lives, but it is a reality that if performers cannot make a living, and if the businesses which bring the music from the creator to the public cannot do the same, the end result will be a diminished cultural and lifestyle experience for everyone.

The availability of internet-based technologies has transformed the world in many ways. It holds the promise not only of helping creators to reach millions of people with their creations more easily; it also challenges those of us involved in the business of music to innovate in providing new ways to give the public what it wants, for a price that the public is willing to pay. These technologies also challenge those of us who care about music to reach out to the worldwide community of music-lovers to explain why taking music for free, without the authorisation of the creator and/or other rights-holders, is not a 'victimless crime' - and to help them to realise that, in the long run, the ultimate victim is the consumer, not just large corporations or a few super-rich artists as many believe.

We believe that www.promusic.org is an important new development in achieving the aims of copyright awareness and in helping everyone to understand copyrights key role as the Shield Of Creativity."

IMPALA

"The younger generation in particular feels that it is quicker, easier and cheaper to download. Yet marketing costs (for record companies) are increasing. It's getting harder to have your records in the stores. It is more and more expensive to do so, for less revenue. The equation is very easy: more costs and less revenue equals bankruptcy.

The traditional weakness of independent companies is working capital. In a market where access is harder, you need more staff and more means. As soon as you are in the red you have a problem because you have hardly any reserves. And the whole system is in jeopardy because nowadays to keep your artist you need to be able to compete with the majors and understand how to develop an act and that is a long and expensive process.

A decreasing number of labels are capable of surviving. There are less sales on fewer products. Distribution companies have more and more problems because there is less revenue. So the whole chain is in danger.

I think that we are living in a very contradictory time. There is more and more music consumption. The most popular thing on the internet, (apart from pornography), is music. It is one of the biggest attractions for cable operators selling broadband and rapid access to people. I wonder what would happen to the internet on the day that music disappears - because there would be no production houses. Some cable companies might be happy to see the music industry disappear, but this would put them in a more difficult position when it comes to selling broadband access."

Michel Lambot, Chairman of Impala

MTV Europe

"MTV Europe is delighted to present viewers from across Europe with the opportunity to legally download, stream and burn quality music. We are fully aware of the devastating effects illegal downloading has had on the labels and we are committed to supporting the industry."

Brent Hansen, President and CEO, MTV Network Europe

OD2

"Internet piracy, if it continues, will eventually hurt those who love to make music. Some of the young and minority musicians we work with derive most of their income from record sales. If this is all taken away, most of them are going to have to look for other work. There are many people trying to provide legal access on the net at much more reasonable prices."

"I support the Pro-music initiative to encourage people to find out for themselves what is available legally and decide if they think it is fair value or not."

Peter Gabriel, Artist and Co-founder of digital music distribution site OD2