Vox Polis

You’re sick of reading about it and I’m sick of writing about it but copyright extension just won’t go away. After the Gower’s review recommended no extension to the copyright term for sound recordings I really thought we’d seen the back of this. Apparently not. This morning I read that 4500 musicians including Sir Cliff Richard and Katie Melua (now there’s a soporific duet) have signed an advert in the Financial Times calling again for an extension of copyright on sound recordings to 95 years. Is it just me or is this all getting a bit demeaning? My advice to the signatories of this advert: stop this pathetic grubbing around to wring out every last penny from your faded glories. If you want to make more money record some new songs, go on a tour, work as a musician. If that doesn’t work then do what the rest of us do and get a normal job.

In related news, independent music labels have apparently claimed that fair use copying rights (also called for in the Gowers review) could “open the floodgates” to a tidal wave of private copying and (shock, horror!) sharing. For the nth time: it’s unfair to make people pay for the same thing twice if they want to use it another way. It wouldn’t fly in any other industry and entertainment shouldn’t be treated any differently.

According to the Indie, ExxonMobil has been funding EU orientated think tanks who agree (or will agree for lots of money) with their environmentally sceptical “I don’t care about destruction of the world” view. This raises an important point about think tanks that many people do not realise. They all have a specific political agenda and are usually funded by rich and powerful business individuals and companies who want some “bang for their bucks”. Take for example the IPPR - employees have commented that they feel like they spend more time helping to keep Labour in power than rehashing other people’s work doing research. Over the summer there were also several “cash for access” stories.

Worryingly the MSM and public policy makers often rely on think tanks for information and stories; quoting them as if they are representative of civil society. The only thing they represent are specific politically partisan views and big business. Think tanks are just another form of political lobbying that dilutes proper political debate and allows unelected elites to wield political power.

Okay, every year I get some kind of problem with the council tax. Last year they lost hundreds of pounds, this year it’s random requests for small amounts of money that we don’t owe them. Frankly I’m sick of it. Solution: scrap local council tax collection. Replace it with additional address linked income tax administered through the existing national system.
Benefits:

• Fewer (inept local council) tax collectors which has got be more efficient.
• Low income households and pensioners pay less.
• Encourages high income businesses to move to areas of lower income tax which could be used to redress the North-South divide.
• I’m a lot happier (this is in reverse order of importance obviously).

Obviously there are going to be unfairnesses with this system but the current regime isn’t exactly Robin Hood. Vive la Révolution!