Paul Flynn (Newport West) (Lab): I congratulate the hon. Member for Perth and North Perthshire (Pete Wishart) on obtaining the debate.
The hon. Member for Cities of London and Westminster (Mark Field) has reminded me of the extraordinary genius that produced “Peppa Pig”. In the past fortnight I have seen Père Cochon and Maman Cochon, watching on Gallic television, as I do frequently—and there is a Dada Moch and a Mama Moch—in versions of “Peppa Pig”. Why should young children including my many grandchildren be fascinated by a mutant pig with both eyes on one side of her face? That, I presume, is explained by the nature of errant genius.
I speak with a special interest in the matter, because the Intellectual Property Office has the great good luck to be located in the wide open spaces of Newport West. When it was the Patent Office, its relocation was cited in the Lyons report as the exemplar of a splendid, profitable and intellectually successful relocation. I remind the House that the role of the office, which is very difficult and taxing, is
“to help manage an IP system that encourages innovation and creativity, balances the needs of consumers and users, promotes strong and competitive markets and is the foundation of the knowledge-based economy.”
That is a difficult task at the best of times, but it is near impossible to balance those priorities in the amazing world we are in, of technologies that extend our horizons in so many ways. While such tumult is going on, it is difficult for any of us to tell what the outcome will be or what the rules should be.
The hon. Member for Perth and North Perthshire discussed the use of parody. There is a lesson there. You may recall, Mr Caton, a parody of a song called “Empire State of Mind”, by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys. It was parodied by a group from, of all places, Swindon. That parody was called “Ymerodraeth State of Mind”, and contained the immortal line, “Newport, Newport”; it was then also parodied. A parody of the parody was made by the staggeringly talented Goldie Lookin Chain—a group with immense chutzpah. They made a version subtitled “You’re Not From Newport”—which of course is the most deadly insult one could offer anyone, particularly Cardiffians. It is the most withering thing one can say, as it exposes their deficiencies. Perhaps I should declare an interest, as whereas the original parody drew attention to bigging up the Welsh Assembly, the authentic version, sung in the cadences of Newport, suggested bigging up local Members of Parliament. Clearly that is a message of great value. The parody of a parody had 910,000 hits on YouTube, which is very impressive—nearly 1 million. However, the original version by Alicia Keys had 127 million on YouTube alone, let alone the rest of the world.
We must see such things in context. We want the fun of mockery in songs. The one in question gave many of my constituents great pleasure. When there is a clash between the interest of the small-scale creative industries and creative individuals, and huge businesses, with their almost infinite resources enabling them to persuade, buy access and get the ear of Prime Ministers and others, I think most of us instinctively know where our interest lies. We should also consider those who get great pleasure from the availability of music now, and the way it can be downloaded. It is impossible to put that genie back in any bottle. That will continue, and we cannot make rules to stop it.
In support of what the hon. Member for Perth and North Perthshire was saying in defence and promotion of the creative industries, I would say that the suggestion that the future patent court should be sited in the overcrowded cities of Paris, Munich or London is regrettable, when there is wonderful habitat waiting for it in the city of Newport. It seems extraordinary that that is not being considered. I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on securing the debate, and I hope that the voice and interests of the creators of property from which many others make huge sums of money will have the primary consideration in the difficult and bewildering decisions before us.
Dream reaction
I did an interview on BBC Asian Network Radio. Glad I did. Here are the tweets.Very happy with the positive reactions. The message of the new book is that politics is a job worthy of the idealism of young people.
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What debate was this Paul?
Posted by: HuwOS | February 07, 2012 at 08:53 PM
It was in Westminster Hall this morning. My contribution was a shameless bit of Newport nationalism following the recent hammering the city has had. There were more weighty contributions. It all on the UK Parliament site.
Posted by: Paul Flynn | February 07, 2012 at 08:58 PM
It was about this was it?
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/ipreview-doc-ee.pdf
With Mr Wishart taking up the cudgels because the report suggests rather mildly that current IP law or its implementation may actually be more harmful to UK business rather than beneficial.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/02/07/ipo_captures_govt/
Posted by: HuwOS | February 07, 2012 at 09:13 PM
You made a reasonable and humorous point on parody Paul.
It might have been worth mentioning that the original parody did suffer a DMCA takedown by EMI (which of course only led to far more versions popping up online) although GLC's parody of the parody did not suffer the same fate.
Which surely suggests that websites and people posting on them clearly need more protection from frivolous, pointless and insufferably asinine copyright claims than they currently enjoy.
http://www.radioclashblog.com/archives/2010/08/10/newport-ymerodraeth-state-of-mind-emi-and-fair-use/
On a separate but I believe rather interesting point, our current approach to copyright and IP costs Europe a net loss of appx 6 billion Euros with that money flowing into the US.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110906/02511015805/europes-copyright-strategy-have-europeans-send-as-much-money-as-possible-to-us-companies.shtml
Suggesting that really we should reconsider our whole approach to global trade.
Posted by: HuwOS | February 07, 2012 at 09:38 PM
Thanks for sharing Paul.
Posted by: Jezreel Ricafort | February 08, 2012 at 02:00 PM
A lot of positive interaction found in this post. I enjoy reaing it. thanks.
Posted by: What to do in London | February 08, 2012 at 02:02 PM
Ah, finally been able to get to it.
Here's the link to the full discussion
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/whall/?id=2012-02-07a.1.0
Posted by: HuwOS | February 08, 2012 at 03:20 PM
'...the staggeringly talented Goldie Lookin Chain—a group with immense chutzpah.'
Yeah, their song 'Your Mother's Got a Penis' displays a really intelligent and insightful grasp of contemporary transgender politics: I mean, it really takes a genius to realise that ftm transmen have their phalloplasties prior to SRS and thereafter prefer to be referred to as 'her'!
Yay verrily, it doth take sooo much 'chutzpah' to target an already intensely persecuted and derided minority group like transsexuals for ridicule and - hey, what's more - all this makes me feel sooo safe as a Newport transperson myself that I always need to make sure I'm back in the safety of the house by at least the devastatingly late time of eight o' clock pm or else I'll be beaten, raped and murdered to a pulp!! Hallelujah!!!
Posted by: Miss Represented | February 11, 2012 at 11:52 PM