On Copyright
Jenner has been a regular commentaor on copyright and the music industry. Amongst others he was interviewed on copyright by NetzpolitikTV and for the documentary Good Copy Bad Copy. An extensive interview with the Future of Music Coalition about copyright and technology is available as a podcast as part of the Coalition's podcast series
Jenner has been critical of Digital Rights Management (DRM). He has argued that in response to Napster the music industry invested heavely in DRM. He argues that the music industry "persuaded themselves they could follow these files around and every time they were used a small amount of money would come magically to the companies. And then everything would be fantastic. But of course it did not work out that way because the public hates DRM as it stops them doing things they want to do in the digital domain." Jenner has long argued that governments should impose blanket licences for music online to counter copyright infringement, with a fee being collected by internet service providers (ISPs). He reasoned that "If we can get £1 a month from every person in this island for music, that would give us £60 million a month," which according to Jenner comes close to the revenues of the music industry in the UK.
More recently Jenner has been involved in efforst to build a music rights registry at European Union level, and has argued for an international music registry, supported by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). According to Jenner "we don’t know who owns what and where" and this holds back the copyright licensing of music online. Jenner now wants to see a wide variety of online music services and business models being licensed, through a mixture of blanket licenses and individual licences. Jenner argues that copyright, and intellectual property more generally is a system which ensures that people get paid, he argues that "Intellectual property is not something like a chair."
Read more about this topic: Peter Jenner