At the WIPO conference in Geneva I took the opportunity to interview the organisation's director general, Australian lawyer Francis Gurry, about the challenges creative artists of all types face in today's global digital content market. Galloping technological change, collapsing incomes and a hideous climate of violence facilitated by anonymity are just a few of them. I asked him what we could do - if anything - to help redress the balance. And I have to say that if the head of the World Intellectual Property Organisation says that artists need to be more vociferous about their rights, it's probably time indeed that they were.
The full interview is now online at The Arts Desk. http://www.theartsdesk.com/interviews/digital-demands-time-artists-speak
(Meanwhile I've been away in Salzburg and missed what sounded like a simply glorious evening at the final of the BBC Young Musician of the Year, won by the cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason. Do have a read of this piece by Chi-Chi Nwanoku about him.
I'll catch up when I can, but am currently off sick.)
