CIPIL Intellectual Property Seminar Series 2011-12: 'Copyright, Technology and the Music Industry'

Copyright, technology and the music industry with Feargal Sharkey (CEO, UK Music); and Nic Garnett (Principal Consultant, Interight, London).

Room G24, Faculty of Law

Feargal Sharkey, CEO UK Music 


Born in Derry,Northern Ireland, Feargal found fame as lead singer in The Undertones and later as a solo artist – enjoying some 12 years of world tours, hit albums, late nights and the finest transport café cuisine money can buy. Hanging up his pop star boots, he successfully transferred to the business side of the industry; holding posts as A&R manager, record label MD, Member of the Radio Authority and Chair of the Live Music Forum.

In February 2008, Feargal was appointed CEO of British Music Rights. Eight months later, this role was expanded significantly with the creation of UK Music.Headed by Feargal, UK Music is an umbrella organisation that represents the collective interests of the UK’s commercial music industry – from composers, songwriters, artists, musicians and record producers to music managers, music publishers, record labels and collecting societies

Nic Garnett, Principal Consultant with Interight.com of Mountain View California

Nic is an IP and IT specialist with extensive international experience in the management and protection of intellectual property rights. He holds law degrees from the universities of Cambridge and Bordeaux. He advises leading edge technology and media companies, institutions and governments throughout the world on copyright enforcement, IP/technology licensing, digital rights management, on-line media technology deployment, regulatory compliance in on-line media delivery, e-commerce policy and legislative and technology standards development.

Since establishing Interight some 4 years ago, Nic has conducted a considerable amount of leading edge research into the relationship between copyright law and DRM systems.

From 1999 to 2002 Nic was Senior Vice President and in house counsel with InterTrust Technologies in Silicon Valley, focusing on the operational and policy aspects of deployment of the InterTrust DRM systems. Nic was the Director General and CEO of the International Federation of Phonographic Industries from 1992 to 1999 and before that, IFPI's Regional Director for South East Asia, based in Singapore and Hong Kong. In both roles he played an important part in assisting with the global development of copyright. Nic is a regular speaker on rights management and technology in conferences throughout the world. He spoke at Copyright and Technology conferences organised by WIPO at Harvard University (1993), The Louvre (1994) and in the WIPO E-Commerce conference at Geneva in September 2001. He has been a regular visitor to China for the last 20 years and has interacted frequently with the Chinese authorities in the development of the Chinese copyright system and the efforts to deal with piracy in China.

Please contact Gaenor Moore for more information