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EU-wide Music Licensing Policies Published
www-xenu-dot-net writes "To stimulate the online music business in Europe,
EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy is recommending the elimination of territorial restrictions on the licensing and copyright enforcement of online music. Until now, so called licensing collection societies have enjoyed monopolies within their countries. (For online sales, the collecting societies typically charge 12 percent of the retail price today, compared to 9 percent on CDs.) EU Socialist Group leader Martin Schulz has called Mr McCreevy a "loose cannon whose arrogant opinions have provoked anti-EU feeling across Europe." That impression might not change with the new recommendation, as collecting societies in smaller European countries fear that they will lose out to larger rivals, potentially restricting the development of new music."
I believe the actual article that this is supposed to be pointing at it here.
I trust him about as far as a 3 year old child could throw him.
In Germany, there is the so-called GEMA (Gesellschaft für musikalische Aufführungs- und mechanische Vervielfältigungsrechte) [society for musicial performance and mechanical reproduction rights], which gets share of the prices on CDRs, music tapes... and the profit on Audio-CDs. The artists get their share of this money, no matter how often they've been copied or wheter it is still legal to copy a certain CD (Germany has made it illegal, not punishable, to circumvent technical copy restrictions...).
The problem is that this society is a) to expensive and b) far to complex for the small musician out on the streets to take advantage of. So, instead of getting money for being heard, he pays money for his own blank CDRs, while Sony etc keep getting the big shares.
On the other hand, that directive is really quite unsatisfacting, as it leaves holes for every big company to establish their own restrictioning system instead of making things easier and more reliable for both, listeners and creators.
---don't get bitten/r
Here is a better link and a Google news search.
I did preview, and still it went wrong Google news search
Here in the Netherlands, all blank media is taxed over 100%.
CD's which cost around E0,20 apiece without tax cost over E0,60 with tax.
The organisation responsible (Buma-Stemra) also has the power to seize all untaxed blank media being sold and then fine the seller. It has recently been discovered they have also been illegally selling off the seized media.
This organisation (given this 'privilege' by our government) brings in millions of euros each year, and nobody knows where exactly this money is going.
The poor starving artists get paid, right?
The path I walk alone is endlessly long.
30 minutes by bike, 15 by bus.
Where I live (Spain) we have a quite similar scenario, unfortunately.
We're getting ripped off out here, and that's contrary to the whole point of the single market.
Well, one of the points of the Euro was to make pricing differences between countries transparent to consumers. The UK didn't join the Euro and so don't get the benefits of it.
I know someone who organized a concert of Status Quo. He payed lots of money to the band, and *still* some organization wants to have a certain (high!) percentage of that money to 'pay the artists'. The stupid thing is that the artists were already payed, and the money goes to the Dutch music industry. That's stealing!
When I read the title of this post I thought: "At least it can't get worse!". But I'm afraid I was wrong....
Milena Gabanelli's Report on Rai3 (one of those transmissions so good you wonder how much time before they get censored) once had 2 hours about SIAE.
Turned out, the tune getting the most money from SIAE in Italy is the background music of Onda Verde (traffic condition broadcast) on radio. If you never heard any music at all, that's because it's so low you cannot hear it. But you are paying for it, of course.
In Rome, there are some "musicians" who daily organise concerts where no one goes, only because they agree with SIAE that they are getting support for "cultural activities". It's basically your average white-collar mafia.
As a lot of things in Italy, thieves with the right contacts pull the strings and get rich doing nothing useful for society. This is the Italian development model after all. If you wondered, no, serious musicians don't get a penny. The 99 Posse said they never saw a penny coming from SIAE, even if they wrote a song,Curre curre guagliò, that is in the soundtrack of Gabriele Salvatores' Sud, that ran a few times on national TV. That might have to do with the fact that 99 are not exacly government-aligned.
If you don't like the way it works, pack up and leave. Serious, I did and never looked back—it's a panacea for your liver. But I'll take a trip to Stockholm to vote for Tonino anyway.
Victims of 9/11: <3000. Traffic in the US: >30,000/y
I'd be quite happy to get an EU-wide system though and I live in one of the countries you mentioned.
In Finland, if a musician want to get royalties on their music, they have to join Teosto. After you join, you waive the right to protect your rights to the organization and thus loose control over your own music. For example, the organization requires artists pay the royalties on their own productions if they want to distribute them for free over then Internet.
I have a couple friends who wanted to put MP3's of a couple songs that didn't make it to a CD to web to promote their new album but they couldn't do it since they would have had to pay Teosto for each download.
Teosto is also incredibly protective of the format in which you've purchased your music and was integral part in getting the new Finnish copyright law through which makes converting protected CD's to MP3 illegal. For non-protected music, they even try to get people to purchase a license to convert old recordings - DJ's are expected to pay 800 EUR / year for the privilege of converting old vinyls to CD's so they could play them in new joints that don't have an old-style record player.
And this is the organization which is supposed to protect the artist's rights! You don't get money if you don't join and if you do, they do a good job trying to protect you from yourself.
With this kind of organizations in control, I'd be happy to get a Europe-wide agency as it can't get _any_ worse than it is now and at least I'd be more likely to get a good selection of music to the local iTunes store.
"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid, it is true that most stupid people are conservative."
First off, this article appears to be a dupe; although the fact that the link poinst to the wrong bill masks that. The earlier story is here, and here is what I had to say at the time.
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
Commissioners are sponsored by their respective governments. This is usually a reward for long service or a means to eliminate a potential leadership rival at home. The money is good, the perks and pensions are great.
Charlie McCreevy is a typical Irish parish pump politician. He's pretty smart with money and gets a lot of the credit for reviving the Irish economy. He mouths off a lot, frequently without reflection. He doesn't care what people think and often tries to cut through red tape without undue sensitivity towards vested interest.
If you hate it so much why don't you do something about it and stand as an MEP?
Democratic deficit my arse!
$0.99 = £0.565 = 0.822
At Apple's exchage rate:
$0.99 = £0.79 = 0.99
While the real exchange rates give:
£0.69 = $1.192
£0.79 = $1.385
As you can see, those in the UK are ripped off by twice as much as those in the rest of the EU. Of course, this is only for music. For video, Apple's exchange rates are: $1.99 = £1.89 = 2.49
While the real exchange rates are:
£1.89 = $3.314
2.49 = $2.998
Again, we are ripped of more in the UK, by a greater amount in absolute terms although the rest of the EU is a bit closer to the price we pay.
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