Lauren KEISER: “Today, if you steal music from the Internet you don’t get into prison for that, but we are working on it”

Lauren Keiser – American com­poser, Vice President of the Inter­national Confederation of Music Publishers, recently delivered a lecture in Kyiv on copyright and pirate web­sites. Ac­cor­ding to Keiser, the United States became grand because of the copyright, and he also added: “the only way to improve a society and create a global culture is to reward people for what they do.” “If you want to listen to your fa­vo­rite song, it is wrong to download it from a website that makes money on advertising, but pays nothing to the author. Every person, who has co­py­right, can publish online every­thing he wants. But this shouldn’t be done illegally,” said Keiser. For Ukraine – a country that recently was given the status of “No.1 pirate” in the world, this is really a topical issue (for more details read The Day’s issue No.35 of June 4, 2013). The Day atten­ded the lecture delivered by Lauren Kei­ser and now offers the most inte­res­ting excerpts from what he said to your attention.

“INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IS MORE VALUABLE THAN ANY MATERIAL PROPERTY”

“What is the intellectual property? You know, what property means: for example, you have a store, where you sell watermelons. Of course, you do not expect that a person would come in, take a few watermelons, and then would leave without paying for them. Intellectual property is also not the least valuable, and maybe even more valuable, than any material property. Intellectual property is the property of your creative expres­sion. Today, the greatest export from the United States is export of intellectual property (be it Walt Disney product or software developed by Microsoft). Now it is all at risk.

“Right from the beginning everyone said that the Internet would re­vo­lutionize art: that millions of people would go on the web and would create something that people never dreamt of, since there had never been such possibility. But that never happened. Of course, one could think of the collective genius, but it does not exist. No­thing has changed for centuries: there is a handful of people like Albert Einstein, Ludwig van Beet­ho­ven, William Shakespeare, Lev Tolstoy, or your Si­kor­sky – and they move, create, and invent things.

“The only way to ensure the greatness of your country is to protect crea­tors, who invest in your culture. To thank them you should pay for what they do. Some people say that Madonna and Paul McCartney have enough money, because they are billionaires – but they are billionaires because they make us happy! They are inventors, they change the world! We want to pro­tect the rights of people like Steven Spielberg and Bill Gates. Yes, Bill Gates is a billionaire, but he employs tens thousands of people. That’s where the state has to say its decisive word. The state must fulfill its mission – protect people.”

“PIRATE WEBSITES ARE LIKE A DISEASE THAT DESTROYS LIVES OF CREATIVE PEOPLE”

“Today, pirate website use the property of others for their own be­nefit. Sometimes they look very legi­timate, but even though they sell you something, they don’t pay anything to the creators.

“EX.UA is like an usurper from another planet, who drains the blood of our creators… They say: ‘We want to help humanity – now millions of people will be able to listen to the songs of this musician and he’ll become famous.’ Anyone, who says that copyright impedes or stops the development and technology, speaks only for their own benefit.

“You wouldn’t go and steal from a store, because then you’ll be put in jail. Today, if you steal from the Internet, you don’t get into prison for that, but we are working on it. Pirate websites are like cancer that destroys lives of creative people, just like real cancer, that affects a human body and requires several years of treatment.”

“WE UNITE TO HAVE AN INFLUENCE ON THE INTERNATIONAL ARENA”

“Sixty percent of the computers in the Ukrainian government use pirate computer software. You should get rid of it. Now we untie on the internatio­nal level to help publishers and states agree on ways to protect their citizens. For example, there is one gigantic website – they have business in America, while the website is hosted in Brussels. US laws cannot do anything to close the ser­ver, while Brussels law can not stop their economic activity in America. That’s why we get together and gra­dually develop mechanisms of in­fluencing the situation in the international arena.

“In France there is a state agency that works in a following manner: if a copyright holder finds out that his song was published on a pirate website, the agency sends a signal letter. If the website does not delete the file, they send another letter with a warning to remove it. Last year they sent over a million of the first warning letters, 600,000 of second warning letters, and 317 third warning letters. There this mechanism works.”

“YOU HAVE TO START WITH CHILDREN”

“Many years ago nearly everyone in my country was smoking cigarettes – perhaps, 70-80 percent and the cancer spread, people died. Then there was a big campaign aimed at young children that informed about the dangers of smoking – we skipped the older ge­neration, middle generation, tee­na­gers, and appealed to young children. After all, children started telling their pa­rents: “Daddy, daddy, don’t smoke! You’ll die! Mom, don’t smoke in the house I have to breathe it!” The number of smokers dropped from 80 to 30 percent. You will never be able to change people, who are used to getting every­thing fro free on the web, thus, we have to start with children. In the United States we develop educatio­nal programs that teach young children to respect intellectual property. We use videos, cartoons, and hope that in 30 years this generation, who are now little, but also the most important, will change everything.”

The Day’s FACT FILE

Lauren Keiser is the Vice President of the International Confederation of Music Publishers, a member of the Association of Music Publishers, founder and director of two music publishing companies, composer, and arranger of orchestral compositions.

Here is what he tells about himself: “I grew up in Oregon, Northern Ca­li­fornia – the state on the Pacific coast. I started to play music almost by chance – my sister played piano, while I was delivering papers and mowed lawns. One time I sat down at the piano and wrote a sonata. I played it for my mom – she was shocked, because I never took music classes, only listened to it. Later, when I was a young man I went to New York and became a rock musician, wrote songs. Plates with my music were released, I traveled around the country – it was very interesting. Then I went back to studying music and spent five years learning from Russian masters – I took private classes. When Krzysztof Penderecki came from Poland to America, I was the only one, whom he taught privately. Now I have officially become a composer. Among other things, I was also lucky in business: when I was 32 I became the president of a company that produced music of various musicians. I once suggested that Jimi Hendrix should write a textbook on bass guitar. Eventually, he came to my office at 9 in the morning and said: I don’t know how to read and write notes and you want me to write a book! He opened a bottle of liquor, poured some coffee in it, took out his guitar and said: That’s how you play a bass guitar. I took a sheet of paper and wrote down what he was doing – we had several meetings of such kind. I understand not only the classical music, but also popular music.”