The Rights of Artists We the undersigned writers, artists and musicians, along with our fans and those millions of people worldwide who work in or are otherwise supported by the creative industries, say as follows:- 1. We have the right to earn a living from our work. 2. We reiterate that basic human right to work enshrined in Article 23 (1) of the UN Declaration on Human Rights, and by virtue of Article 23(3) of that declaration, to ‘just and favourable remuneration’ for our artistic endeavours. 3. We seek to make technology a friend, not an enemy of our creativity. 4. We ask to be allowed to make a living, whether through performing, writing or recording music, derived from the power of our ideas and the commercial use of our talents. 5. We say it is a fact that the protection of our creative output depends substantially on copyright law, and we urgently call on all governments to assist us in the legal protection of our collective artistic output from piracy and other unauthorised infringement. 6. It is self-evident that any commercial enterprise requires revenue flows to not only survive, but thrive, innovate and take calculated risks. 7. We say that the internet service provider industry must accept its share of responsibility for the rampant abuse of copyright online. Easy unauthorised access to our material goes unchecked every day across the world. Infringers do not seek our consent when sharing our works. 8. Our creative industries are facing unsustainable revenue losses due to weak or unenforced copyright laws. This means one thing and one thing only: millions of jobs lost and young talent ignored. 9. While our industry has collapsed to annual revenues of less than US$20 billion, the ISP industry has more than doubled its revenues in the last five years to US$250 billion -- due in large part to infringement of our artistic works. 10. We demand our indisputable right to copyright protection be no longer ignored. We say that ‘free’ should not come at such a terrible cost. Stand with us to ensure the creative industries survive. Gavin Bonnar