As many of you may know I've mentioned the fight against evil co-ercive publishing in my Notes From The Deadline column in the past. The brave souls at the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters are really taking up this fight and trying to get the European Competition Commission to help us in our fight. If you have ever been co-erced to sign a publishing deal as part of a commission please get in touch with Patrick at BASCA (email below). This covers all areas of music and will hopefully lead to a state where music commissioners cannot force composers to assign publishing to them as a condition of getting the work. Here is the email from BASCA.
Cheers
Paul

As you know BASCA is pursuing its fight against coercive publishing agreements tied to TV music commissions with our friends in the European Composer & Songwriter Alliance.

The ECSA working group is meeting again at the beginning of next month and although we have a certain amount of hard evidence of the coercive practice of taking an assignment of the copyright of music written for TV as a condition of getting the commission, we would welcome further instances.

We appreciate that many of you might have been the victims of such coercion but are concerned about the damage to future commission prospects by complaining. If this is the case we would like to set your mind at rest. The EU Competition Commission, to whom we will be taking our complaint is bound by the precedent set by case law to respect your right to anonymity and will not disclose details to commissioners which may identify anyone who provides such evidence and who wishes to remain anonymous.

Please send any evidence which you have to patrick <at> basca <dot> org <dot> uk. In particular we are anxious to have written evidence, whether in emails or letters, that refusing to assign copyright in your works would prejudice your chances of being commissioned for a particular job.

Edited by Hugh Robjohns (21/04/10 05:44 PM)

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