SIPTU is encouraging music and theatre practitioners to attend a Public Forum on proposed reforms to copyright law taking place in the Royal Irish Academy, Dawson Street, Dublin on Monday, 9th December, at 5.00 p.m. SIPTU Organiser, Des Courtney, said: “We support the campaign of the Association of Artists Representative Organisations (ARRO) against the proposed report of the Copyright Review Committee.“We are asking all practitioners who are available to register and attend the public forum in the Royal Irish Academy on 9th December at which they can voice their concerns with the proposed changes to copyright law.”He added: “For artists and creators, copyright is not primarily about property or possession. It is about freedom, independence, integrity and democracy. In order to exercise these rights society and the State must acknowledge and protect our ability to live by our own creative efforts.“Copyright law was a crucial enabler of that process. To undermine copyright in the manner proposed by the recently published Report of the Copyright Review Committee is to push creative activity back into the arms of powerful patronage and return artists to the position of dependence from which copyright helped to free them.”To register for the Public Forum on reforms to copyright law please email copyright@djei.ie