The UK Parliament published today a Private Member’s Bill from Kevin Brennan MP entitled “Copyright (Rights and Remuneration of Musicians, Etc.) Bill” available here.
The bill proposes the introduction for performers of an unwaivable right to remuneration for making available on demand, subject to collective management, and payable by producers.
In addition, for the benefit of authors and performers, it also contains provisions on transparency, contract adjustment and rights “recapture”. While transparency and contract adjustment are both covered in the Copyright in the DSM directive (which is not applicable in the UK), the issue of rights recapture is not. If the bill were to become law, performers and authors could recapture their rights (ie revoke the contract with the producer) after a period of 20 years following the date of transfer, regardless of whether or not those rights are being exploited.
The right to remuneration and provisions on transparency, contract adjustment and rights recapture were all recommendations of the UK DCMS Select Committee which published its report in July 2021 (available here).
The draft bill will be voted on in Parliament on 3 December. In the event that it is passed, a rigourous amendment stage would take place.
