CLNZ Writers’ Awards
2013
Last night Paula Browning, CEO of Copyright
Licensing Limited addressed the audience at the CLNZ Writers’ Awards 2013 presentation.
Here is her address:
Here is her address:
Good evening everyone and a very warm welcome to this years’
Awards evening.
There were 68 applications for the
awards this year which is right on the average number of applications that
we’ve had every year for the past 10 years. I would like to personally thank
our selection panel for the wonderful job they did with this year’s
applications. Each applicant receives equal and robust consideration to ensure
that the aims of the awards are met by those who are successful. To Paul
Diamond, Gillian Candler, Geoff Walker and Rae McGregor – my thanks.
The New Zealand Society of Authors Research Grants had a huge
increase in applications this year over the number received in 2012 and we are
delighted that the new President of NZSA, Kyle Mewburn, is able to be with us
this evening to present these grants.
I’m always very conscious of my choice of words when I’m
either speaking to or writing for a literary audience. Without any form of
literary pedigree it’s more than a little intimidating to be the focus of
attention in a room full of our top writers and publishers. It’s been
especially challenging this year to find the words to describe the past 12
months at CLNZ. This time last year we were looking forward to finalising the
next term of our licenses with the New Zealand tertiary sector - but this was
not to be. We now find ourselves at the Copyright Tribunal arguing for fair
payment for the use of your publications in our universities. This is a stand
we must take because Copyright – your right to earn a living from your writing
– is under attack. Governments throughout the world are being swayed by the
well-funded lobbying of the likes of Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple into
changing copyright law in ways that benefit these corporate giants’ business
models. We’ve already seen this happen in Canada and the UK and legislative
reviews are underway in the United States and Australia.
We refer to those who refuse to see
the value in intellectual property rights as the copy-left. You might think
that this type of effective and highly mobilised group are only active overseas
– but alas, no. In New Zealand we have our very own copy-left group made up of
a dozen or more organisations including some that will be very familiar to you.
I’m sure you’ve all heard of Trade Me? How about LIANZA – the library
association and Internet New Zealand – the organisation that operates the dot
co dot nz domain name? These three are among the membership of a group that has
named itself “Fair Deal”. They say they want a fair deal for New Zealand from
the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement, otherwise known as the TPP. On
that point copyright owners can agree with them – we also want New Zealand to
have effective trade agreements that are fit for type of trade that takes place
in the 21st century –trade that includes intellectual property and
copyright. We can also agree with Fair Deal that it would be better for all
countries involved in these trade agreements if the negotiation process was
more transparent. The limited details we do have of the intellectual property
chapter of the agreement date from 2 years ago when a copy of the paper was
leaked. This type of smoke and mirrors negotiation isn’t good for anyone.
However, the approach of the copy-left in wanting to throw the baby out with
the bath-water, isn’t going to solve anything either. If we are going to have
copyright law in New Zealand that ensures that the creativity we are so well
regarded for generates an economic return for both those who create and for our
country, then we need INFORMED DEBATE. This is where you come in. I know that,
as writers and publishers, you like to sit quietly in a sunny room and tap away
on your keyboard to create beautiful books that we all want to own and to read
– but in the current political climate I’m afraid that’s not enough. If you
want your writing and publishing to continue to be an income generating
activity in future then the time to speak up is now.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and
Employment recently published a list of 6 business sectors in New Zealand for
which it is commissioning reports into their economic value. The first report
has been released – it was on ICT or Information and Communications Technology.
The other 5 are tourism, petroleum & minerals, construction, high tech
manufacturing and something called knowledge-intensive-industries (which is
mainly the scientific and technical services sector). No sign of the New
Zealand creative sector in that list is there? So if the government doesn’t
know what our creative economy is worth, how does it know what it’s potentially
trading away in agreements like the TPP?
In the absence of this type of data
from the government, the creative industries are busy preparing their own. Film
and Television released a report earlier this year that puts its value at close
to 3 billion dollars and employment in the industry at over 20,000 people. The
New Zealand music industry has a similar report – figures from this are due out
soon. And what does the New Zealand book
sector look like? Well hopefully we will have a general idea by the end of this
year when the report we have commissioned from PWC is completed. We’ve given
the team at PWC a huge challenge however, as the data that’s needed for these
economic value reports just isn’t available from the New Zealand book sector.
Something else we need to actively work on in the short term.
I’m sure none of us need to be
reminded of the dire news that has hit the local publishing sector this year
with the withdrawal of multi-national publishers from the New Zealand market
and yesterday’s shock announcement of the closure of Learning Media . At an
Asia Pacific copyright meeting in Bangkok a couple of weeks ago I joked that
soon New Zealand children would be reading about Kangaroos instead of Kiwis.
But it’s really not funny. As New Zealanders we’re used to a rich creative
culture. We’re used to having access to our own stories in our own books and
our own TV programmes; through our own music and our own movies. It’s something
we’re inherently proud of as we were able to unequivocally demonstrate at the
Frankfurt Book Fair last year.
All of this is at risk if we do not
have effective copyright law. Without it, the business model that is the
foundation of the creative economy will be worthless.
So what can you do? Do what you do
well – write. Whether it’s a blog, twitter, opinion pieces, articles – anything
that stimulates informed debate that shows the value of copyright and local
publishing to our economy. The time is right to do this now. The government has
announced that it has deferred the review of our Copyright Act pending the
conclusion of the TPP. This gives us time for a robust discussion. Talk to your
friends and family about what copyright means – especially the younger ones.
The ones who think it’s OK to post a question on Facebook asking their mates
for a copy of their digital movie collection or the ones who share copies of
digital textbooks on USB sticks. They want to be able to copy and share, and
technology lets them do it easily, but they’re completely removed from the
impact that very copying has on our creative economy – they need YOU to tell
them!
This year our selection panel
commented that the finalists for tonight’s awards are those applications where
the passion for their subject is
evident. Well New Zealand needs you to get passionate about copyright and your
rights as owners of intellectual property. I know it’s not sexy and it’s not an
easy dinner party conversation but it is critical to the future of New Zealand
writers and New Zealand writing. If we all sit back and think someone else will
fight the fight for us, we risk losing the rights we currently have. Now I’m
not generally regarded as a drama queen so when I say to you that getting noisy
about copyright is critical – I really mean it!!
Right – I hope I’ve reached all of
you in some way on the need to get loud about copyright. Now on to the real
reason why we’re all here tonight – to celebrate and invest in New Zealand non
fiction. At last week’s New Zealand Post
Book Awards one of our previous winners took out the General Non Fiction
category. We were absolutely delighted for both Steve and for the team at Awa
Press on their success with Civilisation
– Twenty Places on the Edge of the World.
For a girl from Mt Roskill it was a thrill to venture into Place
Number 10 in the book and enjoy Steve’s take on how the suburb I grew up in
differs now from its earlier times. If there’s anyone in the room who hasn’t
lost themselves in Civilisation yet,
then it’s time you did!
No comments:
Post a Comment