Getting their slice of progress


According to Prof Michael Geist writing in the Toronto Star, SOCAN (the Canadian Society of Music Composers, Authors and Publishers) has filed a revised tariff for downloading music from websites.

SOCAN wants to get 25% of gross revenues from sites that permit users to select, listen to or download for later listening music. For websites that audiocast (which I guess is streaming), the tariff is 15% and for other websites that communicate music, 10%.

In addition, the Musical Reproductions Rights collectives want 15% of gross revenues, or 10% per permanent download.

All in all, Prof. Geist claims the collecting societies are after a combined 40% of revenues from music downloading. And on top of that, they also have a "blank tape" type levy as well!

Now SOCAN corresponds to our very own APRA (Australasian Performing Rights Association) which has the author's rights to communicate music and lyrics in Australia and which has (sort of) merged or taken over what used to be AMCOS, which had the reproduction rights for music and lyrics. Then, of course, there is PPCA which controls the communication rights in sound recordings and the individual record companies that own the "make a copy" rights in the sound recordings.

So, if you wanted to set up a music downloading site for Australians, you would need to get a licence for the right to reproduce both the music, any lyrics and the recording on the downloader's computer (from APRA/AMCOS and the relevant record company) and a licence for the communication from your website to the customer's website (from APRA and PPCA).

(And soon, you will need to get one from whomever represents the performers when their new rights come in.)

Is it any wonder that it may be difficult to set up such an operation when you would have to deal with so many copyright owners? How much more is the wonder increased if, like their Canadian cousins, they were seeking 40 or 50% of the "take"?

Of course, if you were running a record shop, you would have to pay to buy the electricity to keep the lights on, the music blaring and the cash registers ringing. You also have to pay someone for the copies of CDs, cassettes etc. that you actually sold. So, there can't be any question that you should also have to get a licence from the copyright owners if you want to run your music store from a website.

But, here's the thing: the royalty that APRA/AMCOS gets for that shiny CD is only 5.98% (+ GST, in total, 6.578%) and, of course, there is no exercise of the communication right (apart from the (irrelevant for this purpose) blaring music advertising).

Now, you might have thought, that websites streaming music (audio webcasts) should be treated just like radio broadcasters and pay the same royalty as a radio broadcaster. (That, of course, is not a perfect analogy as that royalty is currently artificially capped at 1%.)

You might also have thought that, if the website was selling a download to be stored on your computer so that you could listen to it instead of a shiny CD, that there ought to be some similarity in the royalty payable for the use of the music etc. The analogy may not be exact - in some places (where Australian copyright laws and monopolies do not apply, but foreign copyright laws do), the download purchase may carry with it the right to make up to 3 or 5 copies, so maybe a little more should be charged for the extra copies. But, triple the going rate for shiny CDs? And what about a charge for the communication right? Sure, it gets used and maybe it is more convenient than going to the record store - but 25% instead of nothing?

So, how do all you iPod owners get recorded music into your iPods?

Prof. Gesit's article can be found here.

Posted: Tuesday - 19 April, 2005 at 11:53 AM         |

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