The wails of theatrical anguish coming from the British record industry over the loss of its beloved tape levy should not obscure the fact that the new copyright Bill is good news for musicians.

The Bill, once it becomes the Act, probably next spring, will put back into the hands of performers a power that they have always had but have never been able to use. That is, the power to control the fate of their own recorded work.

Under the Performers' Protection Act of 1958, our homegrown ratification of the Rome convention, performers are able, just like writers, composers and arrangers, to have a say in what happens to their recorded works even after they have finished the session. Unfortunately, if that recorded performance is used without permission, the performer can only call on the criminal law to do anything about it.

Excellent news in theory, you might think. The threat of a criminal record or imprisonment should act as a weighty deterrent to anyone wanting to steal you music, for instance to use it as a soundtrack for a soap commercial or a TV documentary. In practice, the improbability of persuading your local Knacker to do anything about your complaint has made the Performers' Protection Act a charter for copyright thieves.

Stan Hibbert of the Musicians' Union is delighted about this element of the new Bill: "What the Act proposes now is that the Performers' Protection Act should be amended so that the performer will have civil remedies: I can take civil action for damages."

Ah, yes, but what about the cost of fighting it out in the civil courts? MU members are All Right Jack, at least. "Our union is unique in the TUC in that it offers unequivocal legal aid. We spend tens of thousands of pounds every year making sure that our members have got the funds to take legal action," says the man Hibbert.

This right, to oppose unauthorised use of copyright material and to get payment for those uses you do authorise, is available to the humblest triangle player in the largest orchestra, it seems, and not just to those megastars whose names appear on the label.

Still, no organisation is without its failings.

Where the Musicians' Union parts company with most of the populace is in its support of the record industry's questionable scheme to lift large sums of money from those who prefer to tape their own records rather than buying a second copy of the music on pre-recorded cassette (that means all of us). The infamous blank tape levy.

The Bill kicked this particular proposal into touch. Said an anonymous spokesman, 'We decided in favour of the consumer."

Meanwhile, the Bill has been debated in the House for the first time and is now idling through the lengthy committee stage. Watch this space.