美國音樂人寄語中國同行 爲權利抗爭

'Low' is a song that made U.S. rocker David Lowery famous. It's also a word the crooner would use to describe most musician's paychecks -- especially in China, where piracy issues are rampant.

歌曲《Low》讓美國搖滾樂手洛厄裏(David Lowery)一舉成名，這首歌曲的名字也被這位歌手用來形容大多數音樂人的收入情況，在盜版現象猖獗的中國尤爲如此。

But the frontman for the rock band Cracker, which topped U.S. charts during the 1990s and continues to tour, believes it's not too late to change that in China, where officials are drafting legislation to determine the future of copyright laws that could strengthen enforcement against piracy and ultimately boost revenue for musicians.

洛厄裏是美國搖滾樂隊Cracker的主唱，這支樂隊曾在上世紀九十年代雄踞美國歌曲排行榜榜首，現在仍在繼續巡演。洛厄裏認爲，現在改變中國音樂人的收入情況還不算太晚。中國官員目前正在起草將決定版權法律未來的立法，版權法能夠加大打擊盜版的執行力度，最終增加音樂人的收入。

Mr. Lowery toured China this week both to play shows and urge Chinese artists and officials to avoid the pitfalls that U.S. musicians have faced at home. The U.S. Embassy worked to bring Mr. Lowery to China to speak publicly on intellectual property rights, aiming to reach the ear of Chinese authorities drafting the new laws. The U.S. is also looking to protect the interest of U.S. businesses that sell goods in big consumer markets like China's. Piracy in China has largely undercut the U.S. film and music industry's business in the country.

洛厄裏本週在中國進行了巡演，除了演出外，他還敦促中國的藝術家和官員避免陷入美國音樂人曾在本土陷入過的困境。洛厄裏此次來華演出是由美國大使館安排的，此次演出的目的是希望他能夠公開討論知識產權的問題，讓正在起草新法律的中國當局聽到這些意見。美國也在設法保護在中國等大型消費市場出售商品的美國企業的利益。中國的盜版問題對美國的電影及音樂行業在中國的發展造成了沉重打擊。

The rocker's crusade for music rights first kicked off in 2012, when he posted a biting rebuttal to an essay by an NPR intern who wrote that she didn't believe she and her peers would ever pay for albums. In particular, Mr. Lowery has focused on the need to better compensate artists in an era of online music streaming, noting that while many sites offering such services are supported by ad revenue, few musicians ever get much of a cut. Since 2012, he's waged a mostly uphill fight to lobby U.S. officials to curb ad sales and halt payment flow to sites that make their money on pirated goods.

洛厄裏最初從2012年開始倡導對保護音樂版權的保護。當時美國國家公共廣播電臺(NPR)的一名實習生在一篇文章中寫道，她不認爲自己以及同齡人會花錢購買音樂專輯。洛厄裏撰文對此予以了強烈駁斥。洛厄裏的關注重點是，在網絡流媒體音樂時代，藝術家需要獲得更多補償。他指出，雖然許多提供流媒體音樂服務的網站靠廣告收入支撐運營，但很少有音樂人能從中得到分成。從2012年開始，洛厄裏掀起了一場艱難的鬥爭，他遊說美國官員抑制那些靠盜版商品賺錢的網站的廣告銷售，並中止對這些網站的資金支付。

'Now's the time to talk about these issues in China,' Mr. Lowery said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal in Beijing. According to Mr. Lowery, music-makers around the world haven't been proactive enough about fighting illegal downloads online, nor have they successfully fought for more compensation from expanding music-streaming companies.

洛厄裏在北京接受《華爾街日報》(The Wall Street Journal)採訪時說，現在是時候討論一下中國的音樂知識產權問題了。洛厄裏認爲，全球的音樂製作人既沒有在打擊非法在線音樂下載的問題上表現出足夠的積極主動，也沒有從不斷擴張的音樂流媒體公司那裏成功爭取到更多補償。

Mr. Lowery's efforts come as China's music industry is evolving rapidly with web tech and innovation and as lawmakers grapple to keep up with the changes. A draft of the Chinese copyright law released several years ago hit a bad note with musicians, who claimed that it stripped their rights to their music and gave it instead to bureaucratic copyright administrations, insiders say.

反觀中國的音樂產業，網絡技術和創新令這個產業迅速演變，而立法者卻很難跟上這些變化。行業內人士稱，幾年前公佈的《中國著作權法草案》令音樂人大爲不滿，在他們看來，這項草案剝奪了他們對自己音樂的權利，反而將這些權利交給了相關政府部門。

Some companies are trying to help better compensate musicians: Companies like Xiami, a Hangzhou-based online music portal owned by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, for example, stream Chinese music online and have launched online crowdsourcing to fund bands and live web-casts of shows.

一些企業正在努力幫助音樂人獲得更多補償。以總部位於杭州的蝦米音樂網(Xiami)爲例，這家由電子商務巨頭阿里巴巴集團(Alibaba Group)持有的公司提供網上音樂播放服務，還通過在線衆籌的方式來爲樂隊和網絡實時轉播的表演進行籌資。

But piracy is a hard match for even the most innovative efforts, making it difficult for musicians to make much of a living.

但即便採用最具創新性的措施，盜版問題仍難以解決，這使得音樂人很難只靠音樂維持生計。

Yang Haisong, the lead singer for Beijing-based Chinese indie rock band P.K. 14, says he and his band members could never live off song sales. 'Everyone in music here still has a day job,' said Mr. Yang. While Apple's iTunes has solved some of the problem in other countries, encouraging people to buy licensed songs so bands can receive royalties from downloads, it hasn't solved issues here, Mr. Yang said. The adoption rate of iTunes in China hasn't been as high as in the U.S., Mr. Yang said.

北京獨立搖滾樂團P.K. 14的主唱楊海崧說，他和樂隊的成員們不可能只靠音樂銷量爲生。楊海崧說，樂隊裏的所有人都有自己的日常工作。楊海崧說，蘋果公司(Apple)的iTunes在其他國家解決了一些這類問題，鼓勵人們購買正版歌曲，使得樂隊能從聽衆的下載中獲得版稅，但iTunes卻並沒有解決中國的問題。他說，中國市場對於iTunes的接受度沒有美國那樣高。

Mr. Yang said most bands in China don't expect they can turn a buck on their tunes. Still, it isn't necessarily a problem, he said. 'We don't mind giving our music to our fans,' Mr. Yang said, adding that as long as the fans aren't selling the music the band produces, they think it's fair.

楊海崧說，中國多數樂隊都不指望音樂能賺錢。不過他說，這未必是個問題，我們並不介意免費讓粉絲聽音樂，只要粉絲們不把樂隊的原創音樂轉手倒賣，我們認爲就是公平的。

Industry insiders hope that Chinese officials will create legislation to stamp out piracy online and ensure they get favorable shares of revenue from companies that license their music. They also hope emerging music sites will be able to stamp out providers of illegal content in the same way that Chinese video sites like Youku Inc., Tudou Holdings Ltd., Baidu Inc. and Ltd. have in recent years.

業內人士希望中國官員立法打擊網絡盜版侵權，確保音樂人從唱片發行公司那裏得到有利的收入分成。他們還希望，新興音樂網站應該剔除違法內容上傳者，效法優酷、土豆、百度以及搜狐近些年來推出的對策。

Experts say it's not clear how the hoped-for legislation will ultimately affect artists in China. As always in China, implementation is everything. Subsequent rules and regulations will also play a role in determining the legislation's efficacy.

專家說，目前尚不清楚被千呼萬喚的立法能否最終影響中國搞藝術的人們。在中國，貫徹實施纔是重中之重。對於立法的有效性，後續的規則和規定也發揮著作用。

Mr. Lowery says that as China looks to export its culture and gain a friendlier image overseas, protecting its musicians is the obvious next step. 'If you want soft power, that's the way it works,' he said.

洛厄裏說，中國正尋求傳播本國文化、傳達更具親和力的國際形象，因此顯而易見地，下一步就是音樂人受到保護。他說，如果你想要軟實力，那麼這就是打造軟實力的途徑。