Free for a Fee

The FAC is a new organisation for advocacy of music artists’ rights in the digital distribution space.  Among the Artists already onboard are Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead and Billy Bragg.  One interesting thing about their “charter” is that they are advocating for artists to retain ultimate rights to their work, which in case you didn’t know, isn’t how it normally works in the major-label system.

“…We speak with one voice to help artists strike a new bargain with record companies, digital distributors and others…”

As long as this organisation doesn’t become a new RIAA, by suing the pants off music lovers, or advocating network filtering by ISP’s, I’m all for this.  Labels get too much for too little while screwing over the fans and artists at almost every turn.

If you’re listening, FAC, please don’t become another RIAA.  OK?

Some quotes from the Press Release (pdf HERE):

ARTISTS LAUNCH CAMPAIGN FOR NEW DIGITAL RIGHTS

The Verve, Radiohead, Jools Holland, Kaiser Chiefs, Kate Nash, Robbie Williams and Billy Bragg are among dozens of musicians and performers calling for changes to the law and record industry

[…]

The new organisation will campaign for specific changes to the laws governing the music industry and how business is conducted, so that:

•	artists always retain ultimate ownership of their music
•	all agreements between artists and others are conducted in a fair and transparent manner
•	rights’ holders have a duty of care to the originator of those rights, and must always explain how any agreement may affect how their work is exploited. […] The Coalition will begin by focusing on six areas where it is seeking change: 1. An agreement by the music industry that artists should receive fair compensation whenever their business partners receive an economic return from the exploitation of the artists’ work. 2. All transfers of copyright should be by license rather than by assignment, and limited to 35 years. 3. The making available right should be monetized on behalf of featured artistes and all other performers. 4. Copyright owners to be obliged to follow a ‘use it or lose it’ approach to the copyrights they control. 5. The rights for performers should be the same as those for authors (songwriters, lyricists and composers). 6. A change to UK copyright law which will end the commercial exploitation of unlicensed music purporting to be used in conjunction with ‘critical reviews’.