As part of our commitment to the Government's recently launched music manifesto British Music Rights hosted a seminar yesterday, at the Imagination Gallery, to look at creativity and copyright in the classroom. The seminar was hosted in conjunction with the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

The seminar brought together key stakeholders with in interest in music education to look at possible models for copyright education in the classroom which are imaginative, understandable and relevant. Speakers included the Minister for the Arts Estelle Morris MP, Anthony Lilley (MD of Magic Lantern Productions), David Arnold (Composer/Producer), Feargal Sharkey (Singer/ Songwriter & Chair of the DCMS Live Music Forum), Jeremy Hayward (Institute of Education) and Ian Poitier (NESTA).

Arts Minister Estelle Morris said: "I'm delighted to be part of this exciting event. We all recognise the need to protect and sustain creativity by ensuring artists of all kinds are properly rewarded for their creative efforts. This will become even more important for our next generation of creators in the ever expanding digital world.

Today's gathering of music creators, educators, and policy makers provides an excellent opportunity to think in a fun and stimulating way about copyright education and why it's important. I hope it will lead to some innovative and imaginative proposals for getting the message across."

The seminar was split into discussion groups where an exchange of ideas took place, on how copyright should best be delivered. The Music/Arts session recommended that any materials developed should be as flexible as possible to enable them to be used by teachers across the curriculum. It was also recommended that copyright awareness should be introduced at an early stage (Key Stage 2) and that an understanding of the value of copyright was important, not just for young people, but for teachers and parents as well.

The Enterprise/Citizenship session recommended that copyright awareness should be included wherever, and whenever, it can be fitted into the curriculum and also that a respect for innovation and creativity is the responsibility of all people in the public eye - broadcasters, media, DJs, musicians etc. In addition it was felt that messages should be delivered in a language young people can understand and in a way which is relevant and engaging.

The transcripts of the discussions and key recommendations will be available for download on the British Music Rights website shortly.

Sir Alistair Hunter, Chairman of British Music Rights said: "We believe that building awareness of copyright and creativity should happen at the very earliest stage in the education system, in primary schools, and that throughout school this should be at the core of appropriate curriculum subjects, e.g. the arts, design and technology, enterprise and citizenship, rather than as an optional extra.

We are delighted that so many people were able to attend the seminar and give their valuable input into this subject. We are pleased that the seminar provided a positive step towards co-ordinating the dialogue between government, industry and educators. We will now collaborate closely to deliver those recommendations made today."

David Arnold, Composer and Producer said: "People should be aware of the craft that is involved in making music. Artists spend a lot of time and money putting together their music and they should be rewarded for it. There are 35,000 composers and musicians working in this country and very few of them earn vast amounts of money.

I am delighted to be part of this seminar, as a composer I rely on copyright to make my living. It is vital that we instil in young people an awareness of the value of innovation and creativity."

Contact: British Music Rights
Telephone: 020 7306 4446
Email: britishmusic@bmr.org

Notes

1. British Music Rights was established to promote greater awareness of the interests and concerns of British music composers, songwriters and publishers to UK and EU policymakers and the wider public. The primary focus is to communicate an understanding of the rights and rewards for creativity in the music business; the value of those rights to UK ply; the impact of new technologies upon music creators and publishers and the resulting policy and legislative implications.

2. Our member organisations are the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters, the Music Publishers Association, the Performing Right Society and the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society.

3. British Music Rights is a member of a pan-European initiative entitled the European Music Copyright Alliance (EMCA - www.emcaweb.net). This group will be launching an educational campaign to raise awareness of copyright and the value of creativity. The campaign will be launched in October 2004 in Brussels and will then roll out in schools across Europe.

4. British Music Rights is a member of the Music Business Forum (MBF) which is a cross- industry initiative created to liaise on key issues. The MBF is an informal grouping of organisations from across the music industry covering the interests of composers, artists, orchestral and session musicians, songwriters, producers, music publishers, managers, record companies, the collecting societies which administer rights in music and sound recordings and the record retailers

5. British Music Rights is also a member of the Alliance Against Counterfeiting and Piracy which is a unique coalition of trade and enforcement organisations representing music, film, video, software etc. The Alliance have joined together to form this pressure group to pursue common goals in an improved legislative framework to fight the effects of counterfeiting and piracy. For further information please visit the Alliance website at: www.aacp.org.uk