The Stage

MU calls for artists’ right to object to how their music is used

Published Tuesday 25 August 2009 at 15:35 by Lalayn Baluch

Artists should have the right to object to their work being used in a way that contravenes their “beliefs and morals”, the Musicians’ Union will tell the Trades Union Congress next month when it calls for support to lobby the government.

The MU has submitted a motion to be put forward at September’s TUC Congress, which if adopted will see the larger trade body - which represents 58 unions - join the campaign to give performers greater control over how their recordings are used and by whom they can be sold.

The move follows a public campaign in May, when the MU and members of the Featured Artists Coalition, including musicians from Blur and Pink Floyd, called on the British National Party to stop selling compilation CDs of work by British artists to raise campaign funds. They decried the fact that they were legally powerless to prevent their work being sold by the far-right political party.

Meanwhile, the MU, as well as artists including David Gray, Matthew Herbert and the Magic Numbers, have also spoken out against music being used as a method of torturing prisoners.

MU general secretary John Smith believes the TUC’s support will give weight to the campaign for greater rights for artists. He told The Stage: “The moral rights afforded to performers in this country are still at a lower level than those of authors. For example, performers are unable to legally object about the way in which their music is used.

“It is vital that the government addresses this issue to give performers more control over their work and to give them the right to object to, for example, their music being sold to raise funds for the BNP or to their music being used as part of torture methods.”

Smith said that while the MU’s campaign focused on musicians, the issue was relevant for anyone who creates artistic work, including actors.

The MU has supported its argument with Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that “everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author”.