We had a very interesting talk and discussion about copyright starting with the questions:

• How do we pay artists?
• What is the value of, and how do we recompense, our images, documents, photographs etc?

Caroline gave examples of why these questions matter: today graphic artists earn only about £12,500 per annum; and Van Gogh sold only one picture in his lifetime: The Red Vineyard, which sold for 100 Francs (Caroline showed us this picture). She noted it would now be worth about £30 million.

Caroline went on to explain that following the invention of the printing press, the Statute of Anne was passed in 1710 to provide for copyright regulated by the government and courts, rather than by private parties i.e. publishers. The right granted was to copy and have sole control over the printing and reprinting of books, with no provision to benefit the owner/creator after the sale apart from royalties, so the writer / artist / creator was paid by the popularity of the work.

Copyright is currently “death + 70 years” but the greater challenge now lies in the internet. In most people’s minds the internet is free. Thus, although the creator of a work should have control over how it is used, this is often not now the reality.   This raises the issue of “creative commons” when permission is sought and then generally given by the author / artist. But where is the value? – is it money or acknowledgement or on the internet directing the traffic to somewhere else? And how does marketing differ from sales?

The creative industries contribute approximately 87 billion a year to the economy in the UK, that is 10 million per hour! And yet individuals, especially for example poets, rely on the public seeing what they do – and yet how can they live if we take what they do and use it for free?

Caroline went on to discuss the issue of museums and galleries, which have enormous assets, but since we all love to go to them for free how do we expect them to be funded? And if they should be funded by the government, how important is culture compared to other areas such as health and education?

We agreed that this seemed a fairly intractable challenge for all parties, and we probably finished with as many questions as we had had at the beginning! But it raised many issues that needed to be grappled with for the sake of the artists and their ability to earn a living for themselves in a fair way for all.  (Summary: Caroline Fisher)