Sherwin responds
Well, my letter (see 2.11.2004) never got printed in The Times, I guess their mailbag was too full of people complaining about the demise of the broadsheet edition. I did, however, get a lovely email reply from the journalist who wrote the original article, reproduced below:
Hi Becky,
Thanks for your letter regarding the Cliff copyright story which was passed on to me.
It is a good point that the laws are supposed to allow more less well-known music into the public domain which might not be freely heard.
Cliff was particularly unmoved about that when I put it to him.
But I think the European Commission is sympathetic to the extending public domain argument and the record industry may not get satisfaction.
Best,
Adam Sherwin
Media Reporter, The Times
So Sir Cliff, in fact, was pretty unmoved by the plight of British music’s unsung heros. At least he wasn’t moved enough to free their music from the commercial vacuum to which another 45 years of copyright would consign it.
Although I’m really pleased Mr Sherwin thought to put the question to him, as well as having the admirable good manners to let me know, I wish he’d had the balls to expose Sir Cliff’s hypocrisy. But then he probably likes his job as Media Reporter for the Times.
As for the record industry “not getting satisfaction” - I’m not so sure. When I spoke to Francine Cunningham at the IFPI for my Index on Censorship article she let me know that their lobbying efforts would be concentrated on the European Parliament, once the Commission had submitted its report, because the European Commission were “very cautious about change”. The European Parliament might be just the sort of people likely to respect the opinion of an aging old hypocrite like Cliff Richard. But we live in hope.
Hi Becky,
Thanks for your letter regarding the Cliff copyright story which was passed on to me.
It is a good point that the laws are supposed to allow more less well-known music into the public domain which might not be freely heard.
Cliff was particularly unmoved about that when I put it to him.
But I think the European Commission is sympathetic to the extending public domain argument and the record industry may not get satisfaction.
Best,
Adam Sherwin
Media Reporter, The Times
So Sir Cliff, in fact, was pretty unmoved by the plight of British music’s unsung heros. At least he wasn’t moved enough to free their music from the commercial vacuum to which another 45 years of copyright would consign it.
Although I’m really pleased Mr Sherwin thought to put the question to him, as well as having the admirable good manners to let me know, I wish he’d had the balls to expose Sir Cliff’s hypocrisy. But then he probably likes his job as Media Reporter for the Times.
As for the record industry “not getting satisfaction” - I’m not so sure. When I spoke to Francine Cunningham at the IFPI for my Index on Censorship article she let me know that their lobbying efforts would be concentrated on the European Parliament, once the Commission had submitted its report, because the European Commission were “very cautious about change”. The European Parliament might be just the sort of people likely to respect the opinion of an aging old hypocrite like Cliff Richard. But we live in hope.
September 27th, 2007 at 5:15 pm What do you mean Cliff is a hypocrite?