Artists' earnings and copyright (Britain and Germany)

Martin Kretschmer,
17 January 2005

Artists' earnings and copyright: A review of British and German music industry data in the context of digital technologies A paper by Martin Kretschmer exploring issues surrounding artists and copyright within the digital environment. 'Digital technologies are often said to enable a qualitatively new engagement with already existing cultural materials (for example through sampling and adaptation); and, to offer a new disintermediated distribution channel to the creator. A review of secondary data on music artists’ earnings and eight in–depth interviews conducted in 2003–04 in Britain and Germany indicate that both ambitions have remained largely unfulfilled. The article discusses to what extent the structure of copyright law is to blame, and sets out a research agenda.' To access the full paper online, CLICK HERE.

http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue10_1/kretschmer/index.html