Mark Isherwood

Mark spent 18 years working for the MCPS-PRS Alliance (now PRS for Music), the UK music rights collecting society and one of the biggest in the world, in senior management positions. Since helping to establish Rightscom, Mark has undertaken rights acquisition negotiations for a major pan-European broadcaster. He has worked with a major record company in a range of activities revolving around the analysis of their system requirements in the management of digital music. Mark also led a team of Rightscom consultants in a project for the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) examining the intellectual property rights (IPR) consequences of using Creative Commons licences in the HE and FE sectors and, along related lines, lead a multi-party project for the European Commission assessing the value of the public domain to the digital ecosystem.

He is currently the lead consultant for Rightscom in the support of DDEX, an organisation developing standard messages and other supporting standards for the exchange of information relating to the management of digital media content and rights with the current focus on the music industry. Rightscom acts as the Secretariat for DDEX, managing the technical development of the standards and all aspects associated with the operation of the organisation. He was Chair of the Global Repertoire Database Working Group which attempted to create a single, comprehensive and authoritative representation of the global ownership and control of musical works.