What are your rights as a content producer?

From the desk of Roy Furr, Thursday, 9:11 am

I don’t know if you know this about me — I produce electronic music. So my never-ending pile of magazines that I go through every month not only includes magazine after magazine on business, entrepreneurship, and direct marketing… But also on producing music and the latest trends in electronic music.

(Plus the staples like Reader’s Digest to help me keep my finger jammed down on the pulse of everyday America.)

So I was recently reading a copy of Electronic Musician, when a little sidebar jumped out at me.

It’s title?

The Bill of Rights for Songwriters and Composers

It’s a listing of 10 rights ASCAP has put together for all songwriters and composers. The interesting thing about it to me was not just that it was done, or even how relevant it is in today’s environment of producing and distributing creative works (and all the accompanying piracy, illegal sharing, and gray area use of others’ creative works)…

But really how relevant it is outside the field of songwriting and composition.

Here’s what I think…

This listing of 10 rights is a must for ALL content producers — REGARDLESS of the nature of the content being produced.

This means it’s your rights when you write a blog.

It’s your rights when you write a book.

It’s your rights when you produce a teleseminar.

It’s your rights when you put a video on YouTube.

It’s your rights whenever you produce ANY content. Especially content released for public consumption.

Here’s the Bill of Rights, from ASCAP (at http://ascap.org/rights/):

1. We have the right to be compensated for the use of our creative works, and share in the revenues that they generate.
   
   
2. We have the right to license our works and control the ways in which they are used.
   
   
3. We have the right to withhold permission for uses of our works on artistic, economic or philosophical grounds.
   
   
4. We have the right to protect our creative works to the fullest extent of the law from all forms of piracy, theft and unauthorized use, which deprive us of our right to earn a living based on our creativity.
   
   
5. We have the right to choose when and where our creative works may be used for free.
   
   
6. We have the right to develop, document and distribute our works through new media channels – while retaining the right to a share in all associated profits.
   
   
7. We have the right to choose the organizations we want to represent us and to join our voices together to protect our rights and negotiate for the value of our music.
   
   
8. We have the right to earn compensation from all types of “performances,” including direct, live renditions as well as indirect recordings, broadcasts, digital streams and more.
   
   
9. We have the right to decline participation in business models that require us to relinquish all or part of our creative rights – or which do not respect our right to be compensated for our work.
   
   
10. We have the right to advocate for strong laws protecting our creative works, and demand that our government vigorously uphold and protect our rights.

Do you agree?

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