@cococala, @voices, @morganstanley, @The_IPA, @Unilever, @Transperfect, @Lionbridge @paulwfleming @sagaftra@FIA_actors

@TheVoiceRealm Calling voice talent “b*****s" and “c**ts” is not ok. We are shocked by recent tweets from TVR & are taking it very seriously. Thread:

History: P2P/work hub platforms, in the VO sector ,have broken previously established norms -a relatively small community of full time professional performers , working through their agents or directly and regularly with their own clients...

Rates of pay and terms of service were directly negotiable between the end client and the artist (or the artist’s rep) and there was a reasonable equality in the bargaining positions...

It can be of little surprise then to the voiceover job sites (operated collectively by a handful of people) that voice talent who have been around for a long time, and who have spent years establishing their careers, are angry...

They have lost volumes of work. Pay has gone down exponentially & dangerously . Fees are being creamed off by intermediaries. Copyright laws in their respective countries have been broken & disregarded. This has been happening for 15 years and they have reached boiling point.

The law: In recent years, record companies, unions and collecting societies have pushed back across the recorded media industries, as an unregulated digital marketplace has matured. The campaigning has been extensive and lengthy.

In the past 24 months, 2 major pieces of legislation(globally) have come into force & talent in more than 60 countries are now afforded performer’s rights - and will in the coming months and years be using the law to push back at the P2Ps and their customers...

who will no longer be able to hide behind legal jurisdiction and argue that their terms are simply “work for hire”. It is far more complicated than that, as the owners of those sites well know.

As 2 of the major players are based in the US @TheVoiceRealm and Canada @voices - which do not support performer’s rights in law- it is worth reminding them that from July 2021 the EU copyright directive will give ALL EU performers these rights: http://copyrightblog.kluweriplaw.com/2019/07/15/the-new-copyright-directive-fair-remuneration-in-exploitation-contracts-of-authors-and-performers-part-1-articles-18-and-19/?doing_wp_cron=1597001659.464298963546752929687

From April 2020 the Beijing Treaty came into force in 33 countries
http://fia-actors.com/fileadmin/user_upload/News/Documents/2014/Sept/BTAP_Manual_EN.pdf
http://fia-actors.com/fileadmin/user_upload/News/Documents/2014/Sept/BTAP_Manual_EN.pdf

https://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ShowResults.jsp?lang=en&treaty_id=841

Existing UK copyright law for sound recordings
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/section/182D
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/section/182D

This law has been flouted for years by the job sites.

A note on copyright case jurisdiction in the UK (Sections 23-27): https://www.matrixlaw.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/BBC-v-MCPS-2018-EWHC-2931-Ch.pdf

Blanket global terms, then, will no longer wash. This is not a matter of opinion...

A legal framework is established & the potential repercussions for the vo job sites and the paying clients who use them are enormous. NO EMPLOYER is going to want to use these platforms if they are not certain that the contractual arrangements which they enter into will comply..

with the laws of their own countries, or in the countries in which they wish to broadcast content. And they don’t currently in many cases. Localisation services should be taking note.

A major piece of research is currently being undertaken by a well-established IP faculty at a UK university on P2P terms in the VO industry. The findings will be published within the next year and made available to the UK government, Equity, SAG, the FIA, the collecting societies

and the press as part of an ongoing campaign to see the Beijing Treaty fully ratified in the UK. Executive findings of the pilot study. More to come:
http://sculecentre.ex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Executive-summary-of-the-Report.pdf
http://sculecentre.ex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Executive-summary-of-the-Report.pdf

Similar action is being taken in the US. Both the UK and the US are signatories to the Beijing Treaty and therefore have agreed to support its aims.
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/02/10/message-senate-beijing-treaty-audiovisual-performances https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/02/10/message-senate-beijing-treaty-audiovisual-performances

To those running P2P job sites on global terms in creative industres where IP is a major factor, we would suggest that you seek legal advice to make sure that your terms of contract with performers comply with international and local laws. And to do it quickly.

Talent want a level playing field. International law makers and the European Union have at last acknowledged that they are entitled to one. @thevoicerealm, @voices.com ( and others ) it’s over to you now.

As for the insulting behaviour @TheVoiceRealm, we will fully support our members. The bad behaviour stops now.