British Society
of Cinematographers

Concerning the situation relating to a Blank Tape Levy in England.

The problem with the introduction of blank tape levy in England is twofold.

The first problem is that the European commission has ruled that questions of legislation on author’s rights and copyright are not within the scope of what is called ‘harmonisation’ i.e. rules that need to be the same in all EU countries. It is therefore up to each country to decide policy in this area.

Secondly, the British government – of whatever political complexion – have steadfastly followed the Americans in their attitude to copyright and author’s rights. The American position is that having been paid for their work the artists who come together to make a film are not entitled to any further payments or any rights whatsoever over the control of the film.

The European model is very different from this. Europeans believe that there is an inalienable right to recognise the contribution made by the various artists, cinematographers, editors, production designers, and costume designers (as well as composer, director and writer) in producing the final work and that this should be recognised in a number of ways.

Many countries have introduced a blank tape levy in order to compensate the artists (or auteurs as they are often called) for the breach of their copyright that occurs whenever a film or television programme is video-taped privately. In addition some countries support the principle that the artists involved should have certain controls over the way the work they have participated in is shown to the public for instance whether it is ‘cropped’.

Any attempt to get the British government to change its position must therefore concentrate firstly on convincing the EU that ‘harmonisation’ is beneficial and secondly on making the British government see that its continued resistance is just plain wrong. The obvious way to do this is to build up a platform of information from other countries who do recognise author’s rights and thereby isolate Britain as the sole member who is not prepared to do so.

Currently we have negotiated agreements with four countries and are exploring the legal framework in others. Meantime it is important to continue to work with organisations like Imago to extend and develop the whole idea of author’s rights in film. 21st November 2005.

Note: The contribution of BSC was not mentioned in our previous article under the Lödz Conference of cinematographers, for that fact we apologize BSC and our colleagues Nigel Walters and Mike Southon.


Tony Costa