Beating the SGAE and not die trying

I leave you with the latest article published in Corporate Dossier on 27 May. If you prefer the platform will download complete PDF can do so by clicking here .

It seems that the only victories that get the SGAE policies are, as in the judicial field has accumulated a series of defeats that question his motives and actions. The latest defeat has been litigating against an establishment, like many others, defend their rights through the use of musical repertoires Creative Commons license, from sites like Jamendo, among many others.

Current technology allows for little more than the cost of an ADSL connection in our country, you can directly access all day to different musical environments specially designed for businesses or establishments and that the owner can create their own programming mixing taste the different styles, music created within or outside our borders but have one thing in common: their authors have no commercial agreement with SGAE.

As the SGAE not want to drop their cake, free licenses are as indicated by its name: free, but come with a license under the arm to avoid disappointment. A disappointment, as some tend to always start at 3,000 euros. The certificate we must give the service provider, sooner or later we'll have to teach the inspector of the SGAE and protect us from their abuses, as professional artists, who have opted for this mode of self-promotion, have elected at the same time not be members of these societies so lucrative only for a few.

It is the second time the lawyer gets Onsurbe Vicente Martínez stop the greed of the SGAE, a voracity that every day seems to have fewer limits to their lawyers, who are condemned time and again by actions as shameful as they enter and record private weddings with video to the attendees, and later sue the local and the poor couple. The 'modus operandi' of SGAE is close to our facilities, see the venue and after filing its charter, put the pot to get their faith. An amount that does not take into account whether the SGAE has the rights to 100% of the music that plays in our establishment, by default assume that yes, our music is current, that their legitimate owners have entrusted its protection to that institution and we are to pay 100% of quota.

The truth is not so, we should only pay for what we consume. If only 10% of the music we put on our premises or establishment belongs to the authors representing the SGAE, that is the percentage of the fee that we should pay, or pay nothing, because all our music is free and practice their rightful owners, the authors have decided not to charge any of the entity most hated by the Spanish, even above our maligned public finances. Collapsed last year one of the great lies of the SGAE, digital canon, a tax created by a private establishment and the Court of Justice of the European Union has stopped the foot, clearly indicating that this fee can be charged only individuals, but never to legal persons, companies and administrations which should be exempted.

It was a first step in a long struggle in the field of copyright and consumers, but this slap on the wrist from Brussels, we thought and the advance of an expected victory for all Internet and see in the near future a SGAE to protect artists and who is not engaged in body and soul to steal from employers.

Tags: Alejandro Suarez Sanchez-Ocaña , business dossier , tribune