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Belgian Rightsholders Group Wants To Charge Libraries For Reading Books To Kids
New submitter BSAtHome writes "People with a healthy interest in fundamental freedoms and basic human rights have probably heard about SABAM, the Belgian collecting society for music royalties, which has become one of the global poster children for how outrageously out-of-touch-with-reality certain rightsholders groups appear to be. This morning, word got out in Belgian media that SABAM is spending time and resources to contact local libraries across the nation, warning them that they will start charging fees because the libraries engage volunteers to read books to kids. Volunteers. Who – again – read books to kids."
What's next, having to pay money to sing in the shower?
And the kids should be charged with laziness. I mean, really, can't they read the books by themselves ? A generation of slackers, I call it.
Psst. I heard this rumor that volunteers nurturing an enthusiasm for books in youngsters is what we call "free advertising" and "preserving the future of your market".
I'd bet you a considerable sum of money that whatever you'll manage to wring out of volunteer reading groups at public libraries won't amount to 2/5ths fuck-all compared to the amount you'll lose because the larval Belgians are going to be growing up with fewer books and more of whatever other entertainment is available.
There are times when being evil pays good money. This. Isn't. One. Of. Them. Dumbass.
I'm sorry... but these greedy fucking cunts need to be taken out back and horse-whipped!!!
And Belgian librarians and the kids they read to all vehemently and with much venom curse... "Belgium!"
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I can't figure out if these people are stupid, incompetent or both. Is there any way in which they can make themselves seem any less sympathetic?
Fascinating the greed that impacts simple people every day live and to to what use?
There is a communication on sabam's website to rectify the miscommunication that appeared in the media, they did not charge the library 250 euro, no it was only 239 euro's but for playing music in the library.
For a public reading they would collect 15 euro's per public reading if the work is protected and the rightsholder is represented by sabam.
Do not and did not collect this fee.
SABAM (the group in question) said, in a response, that it was a misunderstanding (translated, Dutch original). They charge 15 euro per public reading, and they cannot distinguish between adults and children. They always have to charge (their words, not mine).
For those of you wondering where the misunderstanding is: they invented a nice strawman for that, by saying that the library wasn't yet slapped with a yearly fee of about 250 euro. Which is true, that hadn't happened yet. But, from the sound of it, SABAM has every intention to do so.
Thankfully, this hasn't gone unnoticed. SABAM is losing favour with politicians. Hopefully this storm will go somewhere. Note that SABAM isn't the only rightsholder club in Belgium (there apparently is some competition! yay free market!), so dissolving them ought to be an option.
There's a $30 charge for outrage. Sony owns the rights to it at the moment.
As a belgian I can only confirm that they are the most horrible kind of "rightsholder group" you can imagine. Some of their "royalties" include. An extra tax on every dataholder (empty CD's, hard drive's, memory cards, ipods, etc...), local bands have to pay a fee when they perform even when they only perform their own songs (because they are influenced by ...), they collect fee's from doctors waiting rooms, pubs, private parties, buses, even on the work-floor when there is music playing, ...
This is piracy, plain and simple. The publishers are losing millions, if not billions, because each kid now won't need to buy the book themselves. They need to multiply the cost of the book by the number of kids being read to, and add a half dozen zeroes to the end for good measure.
Copyrights are to be taken very seriously, folks! This mass, rampant piracy needs to come to a close immediately so these poor, kind, destitute authors can get what is due to them.
with all those sensational messages is that the individuals making the decisions are unknown. It's an organization of some kind with some capital letters as abbreviated name.
Who are those persons?
Spokesperson - Jerome Van Win - http://www.facebook.com/jvanwin ??
SABAM headquarters is located at 75-77 rue d'Arlon in Brussels
Christophe DEPRETER has been the Managing Director of SABAM since 1 July 2009.
http://www.sabam.be/en/sabam/management
http://www.raaskalderij.be/2012/03/sabam-noemt-uitbreiding-activiteit-logische-stap/
Carine Libert, Department of Legal Affairs and International Affairs http://www.facebook.com/people/Carine-Libert/100002967307348
Luc Van Oycke, Director of Administration and Finance http://kopimiuk.wordpress.com/tag/luc-van-oycke/
Willy Heyns, Director of ICT http://www.facebook.com/people/Willy-Heyns/100000541173703
Jac Cuypers, COO http://www.facebook.com/jac.cuypers
Serge Vloeberghs, Director of Sales http://www.facebook.com/people/Serge-Vloeberghs/1171478165
Sandrine Evenepoel, Director of Human Resources http://www.facebook.com/sandrine.evenepoel
E-mail : contact@sabam.be - yaaawn!
Shame them!
It did. The story is about a week old. After it broke SABAM claimed that the library in question does pay about 250 EUR, but it isn't for reading books but for music played in the library. SABAM said that it does collect money for public readings of books but it's only 15 EUR and the book has to be in copyright and be written by one of their member. (Source, in dutch.)
All of this is BS of course these people try to collect on EVERYTHING and as much as possible. They're regularly collecting money for artists that aren't affiliated with them and tend to go after "soft" targets that don't have resources to fight back. They're scum.
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
The estuary of the Scheldt is the ideal place to assemble a fleet to invade England.
England didn't want the Dutch, French, Austrians, Spanish or whatever passed for Germans at that time to have it.
Now, they'd have been happy to garrison it, for the benefit of its populace of course, just like they had for ... well, most of the world actually. But there was one slight problem.
See, the Dutch, French, Austrians, Spanish and whatever passed for Germans at that time didn't want the English to have a beachhead on the mainland, because they'd misbehaved somewhat on more than one occasion when they still had Calais. Go back a bit further to when the limey buggers still had Aquitaine; they managed to start a war that went on so long they actually lost count of how many years it lasted and had to just bloody guess when it came to naming it.
Hence, the only solution to the impasse was to invent a fictional entity to put it in. Sort of like Washington DC.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
You know damn well if we were trying to set up a public library system in America today, it would never be allowed. Corporate power doesn't give a shit about the culture of a nation, only the bottom line.
Librarians are hardly a "soft target", they are well organised on a local, national, and international level, and have been successfully fighting censoring goverments and greedy publishers ever since they first opened their doors.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
I forecast a rise in secret reading sessions -- word passed among friends, person to person, with ... Where the Wild Things Are read to a carefully-selected band of Reading Rebels. In secret.
Shhh!!!
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
These people are just evil.
Courts are there so that people do not resort to /other means/ for just ice.
Bullying libraries and others because you're not making enough (in your twisted world) short term money (hey guys, teaching kids to love books and reading means you have future customers) means you are a leech on society and you should be removed. Permanently.
I suggest it's time for /other means/
--
BMO