Respect Copyright is a project to introduce school-goers ages 12 to 20 to copyright. It was set up by the five Swiss collective rights management organisations (SUISA, Prolitteris, Swissperform, Suissimage and SSA), collectively known as Swisscopyright, and is piloted by Suissimage. The project aims to raise awareness for the world of copyright among schoolchildren by alerting them to the rights and obligations involved and explaining the information in simple terms. To achieve this purpose, it was decided to combine theory and practice by asking Swiss presenters and artists to participate. Several workshops are held each year. They take place in schools in German-speaking and in French-speaking parts of Switzerland and are attended by up to 100 students each time.
Topics covered in schools
The Respect Copyright workshops cover several topics. These include: authors, their works, the rights in such works, the administration of such rights, downloading, plagiarism, the making-available of works online These themes, which apply to the literary, musical and audiovisual worlds and to the stage, are introduced interactively by the presenters and artists with the help of photos, music, charts, videos, explanatory notes and discussions to facilitate the students’ understanding. Students are encouraged to create their own work. For example, at the end of each workshop, the artist works with the students to co-create and perform a song.
Music consumption by students in 2022
Before each presentation of the Respect Copyright project, Suissimage distributes a questionnaire to be filled in and returned by the schools. The form contains a list of questions. Some are for the school staff and relate to the organisation of the event, others are for the children to find out what they expect from the Respect Copyright project and what relationship they have with the artistic world. The form includes a question about how school-goers consume music today.
Based on the questionnaires sent to schools and the answers to this question, consolidated statistics were compiled for Switzerland. The average percentages for each category of use weighted by the number of answers received are set out in the following chart:
Music use in 2022 by schoolgoers ages 12 to 16
| Uses | Average % by category according to the number of responses received |
| Streaming (like Spotify, Apple Music, Youtube, Deezer, etc.) | 88,17 |
| Sound recordings (CD, harddrives, Vinyle, etc.) | 15,59 |
| Cloud services (with a multiroom system like Sonos ou Bose) | 13,37 |
| Radio | 31,78 |
| Concerts | 17,75 |
| Smartphone | 75,03 |
| Hifi System | 16,17 |
| PC/Notebook | 35,82 |
By number of answers received (755 students and teachers asked)
It is not surprising to see that the average music consumption of youngsters today prioritises streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music, Youtube, and Deezer. Streaming has become increasingly attractive in recent years while record sales (CDs and vinyl) remain on a downward trend. The statistics confirm this: 88.17% of music use is via streaming compared with just 15.59% via recorded media. On the other hand, it was quite surprising to see the low percentage of music consumption at concerts (17.75%). The fact that young people continue to enjoy music broadcast by radio (31.78%) is also noteworthy.
General information
If you are interested in the Respect Copyright project and would like more information, please contact the organisers of the event at the following link: www.respectcopyright.ch. It is planned to extend the Respect Copyright project to the Ticino in 2024.
