Written evidence submitted by Sebastian Pearson

I am very concerned about the revised proposals regarding UK Artists copyright & moral rights.

As a skilled photographer of 15 years I am very concerned with the proposed changes to the protection of my copyright and moral rights of my imagery. This is my liveli hood. I have invested in years of training and it is my only income. Like a car manufacturer, they protect their rights, their designs and investments in technology, why is an artist not treated in the same way?

I don't understand why is the government trying to undermine the lively hood of artists and going against the European directive?

Now we are in a digital world it is automatically becoming even harder to protect ones work from piracy. We need to protect our copyright digitally even more strictly, just as the banks have to protect against fraudulent credit cards, and not making it easier for people/companies to steal/remove digital copyright of images and sell on.

Yet Professor Hargreaves, knowing this, has recommended the commercial exploitation of orphan works. This will only make it more difficult than ever for creators to make a successful business when there is huge resource of orphan works to exploit, a situation which will only get worse.

With regard to registering copyright, while on the face of it , it makes sense, it becomes unviable as the internet is global and is not defined by National boundaries. The internet for an artist ’ s point of view is a minefield when it comes to exploitation of any sort, and therefore it is important for an Artist to protect their work the moment it is created so why are these new proposals making this more difficult?

I hope you will take these points onboard and help protect those who should be allowed to protect their assets for the future as you will be making provisions for the future for creators of artistic works to suffer even more at the hands of the industry for many years to come.

On your conscience be it.