If you take away people's copyrights and stop rewarding them then ultimately they stop doing creative work

David Ferguson, Creators' Rights Alliance

"But these companies do none of a music publisher's work, all they do is collect my income.

"Journalists and authors are also getting particularly anxious about this."

Ferguson does not believe that the advent of new copying and communication technologies should weaken copyright.

Creative work

"Copyright law is perfectly flexible enough - in fact the new technologies make it easier to track copyrights.

David Ferguson wants the Alliance to be a 'banner-waver'

"But if you take away people's copyrights and stop rewarding them then ultimately they stop doing creative work."

The Creators' Music Alliance calls on broadcasters, producers and publishers to:

• Not to take all rights from creators, but to negotiate fair licence for their use;
• Allow creators to keep the 'moral rights' in their work;
• Let creators reuse their own material and exploit it in other media after the initial contracted use.

Ferguson said, "I very much hope the Creators' Rights Alliance becomes the banner-waver , a lobbying, campaigning organisation for people in the creative industries."

Speakers at Wednesday's conference include writers AS Byatt, Maureen Duffy and Alan Plater, cartoonist Steve Bell, film director Maurice Phillips and journalist Alex Pascall.