British Music Rights, the lobbying body for U.K. authors and publishers, today (Nov. 30) unveiled an educational campaign in which secondary schools will teach lessons on music copyright.
Aimed at 11- to 14-year-olds, the initiative will introduce an awareness of copyright infringement and the protection of creativity. BMR has developed an education pack that is being distributed to more than 2,000 U.K. secondary schools. The lesson plans are an extension of BMR’s “Respect the Value of Music” campaign.
“We hope that this new teaching resource will begin to create an understanding that will take many young people into their adult lives with an awareness of how copyright can work for them,” comments BMR director general Emma Pike.
The London-based trade body had pledged to deliver music education to schools as part of its commitment to the government’s “Music Manifesto,” which was unveiled in July. Ministers and a coalition of companies and organization drew up the manifesto as a “road map” for music’s role in the curriculum over the next three to five years.
Earlier today, leading music creators, executives and educationists took part in a round-table debate in central London to mark the school program’s launch. Composer David Arnold, songwriter Guy Chambers, BMR chairman Alistair Hunter, and Warner Chappell U.K. managing director Richard Manners were among those who took part.
Arnold, who has scored such hit films as “Independence Day,” “Tomorrow Never Dies” and “The World Is Not Enough,” said that educating youths on the concept of creativity could help stem illicit peer-to-peer file sharing and CD duplication. “One would hope that as students learn about copyright, they would extend a similar courtesy to other people’s works,” Arnold said during the session.
