authors’ rights work

UK writers have had remarkable success in collective bargaining and promoting copyright.

Through the Society of Authors, Writers’ Guild, Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) and Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA), we negotiate and monitor minimum terms agreements ( MTAs); negotiate and administer collective licences and international reciprocal secondary rights agreements; and join with publishers’ organisations to license reprography. In co-operation with writers’ agents, these organisations provide rights management solutions and powerful lobbying and support networks in an increasingly joined-up marketplace.

Whatever the cultural, political and economic outcomes of digitisation and globalisation, the consensus is that content will remain king. So it’s important that artists worldwide continue to take an integral place in considering and shaping the digital future.

My own work, inspired by writers such as Maureen Duffy and Alan Plater, has included service on the council and as vice-chair of the Writers’ Guild; as a non-executive director and vice-chair of ALCS; and as a non-executive director of CLA.

I’ve also served on negotiating teams for BBC radio and current BBC TV MTAs, and the establishment of the BBC Forum; the current Producers’ Alliance for Cinema and Television ( PACT) agreement; current BBC Worldwide collective licensing (PRIME); the current bilateral agreement between the Publishers’ Licensing Society and ALCS; and chaired and facilitated the 2003 BBC 7 licence review.