Gibb, 59, who heads the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC), said, 'It's so splintered due to the downloading, radio station formats being as they are and even TV video stations not showing videos anymore, showing quiz programmes instead.'

'My role as president of CISAC is to bring more awareness to authors' rights so that they keep more of what they make out of their own ideas in the face of advancing technology,' the British-born singer-songwriter said.

'We're trying to create encouragement for new songwriters to go forward to create the big catalogs of tomorrow,' Gibb said. 'The present environment doesn't seem to flourish say as (it did) when we were first starting out.'

The 'Saturday Night Fever' soundtrack recorded by the Bee Gees - Robin and his brothers Barry and Maurice - for the 1977 disco hit starring John Travolta sold more than 40 million copies, a number Gibb said is unthinkable today.

CISAC is the organizer of the two-day World Copyright Summit featuring 500 delegates from more than 55 countries including policymakers, legal experts and luminaries of the film, music and literary worlds.

Looming over the meeting at a downtown Washington convention center is the threat posed to artists and their livelihood by illegal file-sharing of music and film on the Web.

'Technology is not actually helping,' Gibb said. 'It's not inspiring new writers, it's not producing new writers.

'On the one hand you've got people saying it can expose new artists, there's a benefit there,' he said. 'But there's a fall in the price of music because of downloads and the record companies feel that they've lost in the record shops and the songwriters are punished.'

Gibb said Britain and the United States should take the lead in copyright protection, preparing the ground for the next generation of hit-makers. -- AFP