PLÁCIDO DOMINGO ADDRESSES INTERNATIONAL IP ENFORCEMENT SUMMIT
London, 11th June 2014 – Plácido Domingo, the world renowned artist and chairman of IFPI, has addressed the International IP Enforcement Summit being held in London.
Domingo urged governments not to allow copyright to be eroded in the digital age and highlighted the importance of intellectual property enforcement for protection of creators and culture.
He told the meeting of international IP experts that protecting and enforcing intellectual property rights “is one of the most important missions in our society and for our culture today.”
Domingo added: “There is a view – mistaken in my opinion – that in the digital world copyright matters less than in the physical world. It is emphatically not so. In fact, copyright needs protecting as vigorously – if not more vigorously – on the internet.”
He addressed the debate around copyright reform in the EU. “Europe will this year have new Commissioners and a new Parliament. I urge them, in their review of copyright, to promote and protect copyright, not to weaken it. Please, do not allow artist and producers’ rights to be eroded. Rather, look at how they can be better enforced.”
Domingo stressed the need for collaboration to protect intellectual property rights in the online world. “We, in the creative world, cannot protect our rights alone. We need help from the bigger actors. The search engines, for example. When someone uses a search engine to find music, they should not be directed to illegal sources of music. This directly hurts artists and other creators.”
He also called for help from governments. “Enlightened governments will understand that strong, properly-enforced intellectual property rights lead to a rich culture and economic prosperity.”
The International IP Enforcement Summit is backed by the European Commission, the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM) and the UK’s Intellectual Property Office. The summit aims to provide an effective forum for discussion and debate on crucial international IP enforcement matters; increase engagement between national and international partners in combating counterfeiting and piracy; and support interaction and sharing of successful examples of international best practice strategies and techniques.
For further information please contact Alex Jacob
Tel. +44 (0)20 7878 7940
Notes to editors:
About IFPI
IFPI is the organisation that promotes the interests of the international recording industry worldwide. Its membership comprises some 1,300 major and independent companies in 66 countries. It also has affiliated industry national groups in 55 countries. IFPI’s mission is to promote the value of recorded music, safeguard the rights of record producers and expand the commercial uses of recorded music in all markets where its members operate.
Twitter handle: @IFPI_org
About Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo became honorary chairman of IFPI in July 2011. He is a world-renowned artist.
Recognised as one of the finest and most influential singing actors in the history of opera, he is also a conductor and a major force as an opera administrator in his role as general director of the LA Opera.
As a singer, his repertoire encompasses 134 roles, a number unmatched by any other tenor in history, with more than 3,500 career performances. His more than 100 recordings of complete operas, compilations of arias and duets, and crossover discs include DG’s anthology of the complete Verdi arias for tenor and EMI’s albums of Wagnerian roles that he has not sung on stage: Siegfried in both Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, and Tristan in a complete recording of Tristan und Isolde. His work in the recording studio has earned him 12 Grammy Awards, three of which are Latin Grammys, and he has made more than 50 music videos.
In addition to three feature opera films-Carmen, La Traviata and Otello-he voiced the role of Monte in Disney’s Beverly Hills Chihuahua, played himself on The Simpsons, and his telecast of Tosca from the authentic settings in Rome was seen by more than one billion people in 117 different countries. He has conducted more than 450 opera performances and symphonic concerts with the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, Vienna Staatsoper, LA Opera, Chicago Symphony, Vienna Philharmonic, Montréal Symphony, National Symphony, London Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Berlin Philharmonic, among others. In 1993, he founded the international voice competition Operalia.
