In the context of the latest EU copyright reform, a coalition representing 500.000 performers across Europe launched the Fair Internet for Performers Campaign to secure royalty payments on streaming. This Leverhulme-funded study carried out at the University of Cambridge examined i) the political reform process; ii) the effectiveness of the campaign; and iii) whether relative bargaining power predetermined success.
The study shed light on the powerful discourses on fairness that have dominated and shaped the reform process. Using discourse analysis, I found the concept of fairness to be mostly dependent on the stakeholders’ relative bargaining power and framed by hegemonic neo-liberal thought. Drawing on interviews, fieldwork, media, and the documentation produced by the European Union’s government throughout the process, the study also illustrates the contested nature of copyright reform today.
The full peer-reviewed article resulting from this case study can be found here. I have also been invited to write, amongst others, for LexisPSL and the prestigious Kluwer Copyright blog commenting on developments and offering policy recommendations (on the importance of commissioning independent studies on performers’ rights here and on considerations for national implementation of the EU Directive here and here). I have given related talks at the British Musicians’ Union, the University of Oxford, at Goldsmiths and at the IASPM Conference in Kassel.