North American Performing Right Organisations, ASCAP, BMI & SOCAN have formed a central works registration portal. Initially the site will only take registrations in the Common Works Registration (CWR) format but there are plans to expand to other formats. The collaboration is called MusicMark and more information can be found here: http://musicmark.com/
European Court of Justice rules that ISPs can be ordered to block websites
The European Court of Justice has ruled that ISPs can be forced to block websites with content that infringes copyright. Australian copyright owners have been arguing that Australian law should provide similar protection to copyright owners. An article on the European decision can be found here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/03/27/isps_can_be_ordered_to_police_pirates_by_blocking_sites_says_ecj/
Pandora/ASCAP Rate Court Decision
The recent decision by the US rate court setting Pandora's rate with ASCAP at 1.85% may have significant repurcussions for the global music publishing industry. A report on the decision by Billboard Magazine can be found here: http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/publishing/5944618/why-publishers-lost-big-against-pandora-analysis
Australian and New Zealand Music Publishing Industry Valued at more than $AUD 200 million
A survey of AMPAL members has valued the Australian and New Zealand Music Publishing Industry at more than $AUD 200 million a year. Although the survey included data from the industry collective management societies APRA|AMCOS, it only related to royalties flowing through music publishing companies and did not include money paid directly to songwriters and composers. The survey will be used as a base line for comparisons going forward. AMPAL members provided confidential information to auditors Rosenfeld & Kant who aggregated the data.
A depiction of the music universe from a UK perspective. Courtesy PRS for Music
ALRC Report tabled in Parliament
The Australian Law Reform Commission Report on Copyright and the Digital Economy has been tabled in the Senate . Not surprisingly, the report recommends the introduction of a "broad, flexible, technology neutral" fair use exception to copyright infringement. This would allow the use of copyrights without the permission of the copyright owner and without remuneration if the use was "fair". If the government accepts the report and implements its recommendations it will be up to the courts to decide whether a use is fair taking into account "fairness factors" and "illustrative purposes".
AMPAL, as well as the rest of the creative community, have argued that "fair use" will not generate certainty and will undermine copyright owners rights.
The report is available here: http://www.alrc.gov.au/publications/copyright-report-122. The Report also contains other recommendations including changes to the statutory licensing provisions (though much less radical than was proposed in their discussion paper) and orphan works provisions.
The non-exhaustive list of fairness factors recommended in the report are:
(a) the purpose and character of the use;
(b) the nature of the copyright material;
(c) the amount and substantiality of the part used; and
(d) the effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyright material.
The non-exhaustive list of illustrative purposes would include the following:
(a) research or study;
(b) criticism or review;
(c) parody or satire;
(d) reporting news;
(e) professional advice;
(f) quotation;
(g) non-commercial private use;
(h) incidental or technical use;
(i) library or archive use; 22 Copyright and the Digital Economy (j) education; and
(k) access for people with disability.
The speech given by the Attorney-General, Senator George Brandis, can be found here: http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;db=CHAMBER;id=chamber%2Fhansards%2F3a096643-5fb5-4e1c-b836-ba367789757f%2F0201;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansards%2F3a096643-5fb5-4e1c-b836-ba367789757f%2F0000%22
European Directive on Collective Rights Management
The European Commission has adopted a proposal for a directive on collective rights management and multi-territorial licensing of rights in musical works for online uses. The proposal aims at ensuring that rightholders have a say in the management of their rights and envisages better functioning collecting societies as a result of the set standards all over Europe. The proposed directive is intended to ease the licensing of authors' rights for the use of music on the internet.
http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/copyright/management/index_en.htm#maincontentSec1
AMPAL Elected to the Board of International Publishers Organisation
AMPAL's General Manager, Jeremy Fabinyi, has been elected to the Board of Directors of the International Confederation of Music Publishers (ICMP). It is the first time that a representative from this part of the world has been elected to the Board.
ICMP acts on behalf of music publishers across the world to safeguard their creative and economic interests and to help them meet new and emerging challenges in the music business.
ICMP's members include national, regional and international music publishing associations from Europe, Middle-East, North and South America and Asia-Pacific, as well as representatives of the major multinational music publishing companies.
Review of Collection Societies in the UK Launched
12 UK copyright collecting societies (Collective Management Organisations - CMOs) have launched an independent review of how their codes of conduct are working.
The British Copyright Council developed a policy framework to establish a common set of principles of good practice which provided a set of minimum terms to be used by UK CMOs. Fifteen CMOs have adopted codes of practice, including Printed Music Licensing Limited (PMLL), PRS for Music and Phonographic Performance Licensing (PPL).
The purpose of these codes was to set the standards the CMOs applied in terms of their dealings with members and licensees and in the operation of their internal governance processes and to provide members and licensees with core information about the CMOs.
In recent years, collective rights management has attracted increased attention from policymakers. The review will be undertaken by an independent reviewer who has issued a call for evidence. Details of the Review can be found on its website: http://www.independentcodereview.org.uk/
US Publishers' Association Settles with Fullscreen
The National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) in the USA and Fullscreen, Inc. (Fullscreen) have announced that they have reached an agreement to settle copyright infringement claims related to video creators who are part of Fullscreen's multi-channel video network. The details can be found here: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/prnewswire/press_releases/California/2014/01/08/DC42812
Screen Music Awards Winners
DAVID McCORMACK and ANTONY PARTOS won two awards at the 2013 Screen Music Awards held in Sydney on December 9th. They won the category of Best Music for a Television Series or Serial for Redfern Now – Episode 4: Stand Up and. took out the category of Best Original Song Composed for the Screen for the powerful 'Lonely Child' also from Redfern Now.
The winner of Feature Film Score of the Year award was composer and musician CAITLIN YEO with her work on The Rocket . It also took out the Audience Award for Best Feature at the 2013 Sydney Film Festival.
A full list of the winners can be found here: http://apra-amcos.com.au/news/allnews/Winnersannouncedfor2013ScreenMusicAwards!.aspx
AMPAL AGM - directors re-elected
The 2013 annual general meeting of the Company was held on Thursday 21st November. The following directors were re-elected to the Board:
- David Albert
- Marianna Annas
- Philip Burn
- Matthew Donlevy
- Steve McPherson
Matthew Capper was re-elected as Chair and Clive Hodson as Deputy Chair.
Attorney-General Brandis addresses Directors' Guild
Australia's Attorney-General and Minister for the Arts, Senator Brandis, has told the Australian Directors Guild Conference that the new Government in Canberra will bring a renewed commitment to, appreciation of, and enthusiasm for, Australian creativity in all its forms. A transcript of Senator Brandis' speech can be found here: http://www.attorneygeneral.gov.au/Speeches/Pages/7November2013-AddresstotheAustralianDirectorsGuildConference.aspx
US Publishers take action against unlicensed lyric sites
The US music publishers organisation, NMPA has sent takedown notices to the top 50 unlicensed lyric sites in the USA.. NMPA is working with songwriter and University of Georgia researcher David Lowery who published an academic study listing top unlicensed lyric websites. These lyric sites profit from advertisement-generated revenue, yet songwriters whose lyrics are available on these unlicensed sites receive no compensation. More information can be found here: http://www.nmpa.org/media/showwhatsnew.asp?id=94
The New York times also has a report on the NMPA action: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/12/business/media/in-music-piracy-battles-lyrics-demand-respect-too.html
ACCC issues draft determination on APRA's request for authorisation
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has issued a draft determination to allow the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) to continue its arrangements for the acquisition and licensing of performing rights in music for a further three years. The previous ACCC authorisation was due to expire on October 31st this year.
APRA is obliged to regularly seek re-authorisation from the ACCC. Each application for authorisation is accompanied by a public consultation period on competition issues affecting APRA's licensees and members.
The ACCC's authorisation comes with a number of conditions attached, which are directed at improving the transparency of the licensing process and APRA's Alternative Disputes Resolution process.
The draft determination can be found here:
Australia's Attorney-General insists that the rights of content creators must be protected.
Senator George Brandis
Australia's new Attorney-General and Minister for the Arts, Senator George Brandis, has told the Australian International Movie Conference that the protection of intellectual property rights was the cornerstone of the creative industries that employed 900,000 people in Australia.
“An effective legal framework of protection and enforcement of copyright is fundamental to sustaining today’s creative content industry and importantly, the cultural development of our nation,” he said.
“Australia already has a robust legal framework for the protection of copyright, but despite an extensive menu of criminal offences applicable under copyright law, still the problems of piracy and unauthorised use remain.”
A report on Senator Brandis' speech can be found here:
http://copyright.com.au/news-items/2013/copyright-news/attorney-general-on-protection-of-copyright
His speech in full can be found here: http://www.attorneygeneral.gov.au/Speeches/Pages/14October2013-AddresstoAustralianInternationalMovieConvention.aspx
UK Parliamentary Committee comes out strongly in support of Copyright
The UK's House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee has come out with a report seeking greater copyright protection for the creative industries.
The committee had particularly pointed comments in regard to copyright exceptions - an issue that is currently being considered by the Australian Law Reform Commission.
The Report noted: "We are not persuaded that the introduction of new copyright exceptions will bring the benefits claimed and believe that generally the existing law works well. We recommend that the introduction or amendment of copyright exceptions should be contemplated only following detailed impact assessments and after proper parliamentary scrutiny on an individual basis."
The exceptions referred to in the report were based on recommendation of the Hargraves Review which sought much milder reforms than those being considered by the ALRC.
"We regret that the Hargreaves report adopts a significantly low standard in relation to the need for objective evidence in determining copyright policy," the MPs wrote in their report. "We do not consider Professor Hargreaves has adequately assessed the dangers of putting the established system of copyright at risk for no obvious benefit."
The committee was also harsh on the activities and attitude of search engines in general and Google in particular: "We strongly condemn the failure of Google, notable among technology companies, to provide an adequate response to creative industry requests to prevent its search engine directing consumers to copyright-infringing websites. We are unimpressed by their evident reluctance to block infringing websites on the flimsy grounds that some operate under the cover of hosting some legal content. The continuing promotion by search engines of illegal content on the internet is unacceptable. So far, their attempts to remedy this have been derisorily ineffective."
The full report can be found here: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmselect/cmcumeds/674/674.pdf
AMPAL Members Nominate for the AMPAL Board
In accordance with the Australasian Music Publishers' Association Limited (AMPAL) constitution, nominations for the position of board director can be received up to 60 days prior to the date of the annual general meeting (AGM).
The date for the 2013 AMPAL AGM is Thursday 21 November 2013. Accordingly, nominations for the position of AMPAL board director closed at 5pm Sunday 22 September 2013.
Details of nominees have been provided to all eligible full members in accordance with the AMPAL constitution. You can read the constitution at http://www.ampal.com.au/ampal-constitution/.
AMPAL General Manager in the Hot Seat
AMPAL General Manager Jeremy Fabinyi was recently quizzed by the Music Nerwork's Lars Brandle on music publishing issues. The story can be found here: http://www.themusicnetwork.com/jeremy-fabinyi/
by Lars Brandle - Jul 26, 2013
Jeremy Fabinyi is one of the Australian music industry’s top exports of the last 20 years.
When PRS for Music saw its chief executive Steve Porter abruptly leave in the middle of 2009, the U.K. songwriters’ and publishers’ collecting society turned to Fabinyi to temporarily fill the void. Fabinyi became the billion-dollar-man; as acting CEO, he took the helm of a society which generated annual income well-upwards of £600 million, and counted 60,000 members. Until then, Fabinyi’s business cards had carried the title Managing Director for PRS’ sister mechanical rights society MCPS.
The well-travelled executive joined the organization in 2005 following a three-year stint in Paris serving with international authors’ bodies BIEM and CISAC.
Fabinyi’s exploits in his home country are many and varied. Fabinyi was the principal of artist management company Mental Management, which was responsible for the careers of Hall of Famers Mental as Anything and The Wiggles, among others. Ever seen the video for The Nips Are Getting Bigger? Fabinyi shot that.
Prior to his departure for Europe, Fabinyi was Group Managing Director of Festival Mushroom Records and Festival Publishing and Festival Studios.
Fabinyi recently returned to Australia in the role as General Manager of the Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMPAL), a role that brings the exec full-circle. He’d served as CEO of AMPAL in the ‘90s. Early in his career, Fabinyi was a TV reporter.
Jeremy, what do you hope AMPAL will achieve with you at the helm?
There is no question that the copyright industries are under sustained attack from the anti-copyright movement. The recent report by the Australian Law Reform Commission promoting more free use of copyright is a good example. AMPAL needs to take a leading role in establishing the case for better copyright protection – not weaker laws. We need to make sure that our members are well-informed on the issues and to encourage them to become involved in the debate. We also need to explain the value that music publishers bring to the industry. There’s a popular conception that there will always be music and that the commercial music industry is an impediment rather than a facilitator of the creation of great music. Nothing could be further from reality. Compelling content requires investment, production, talent and marketing; and music publishers are a critical element of that equation.
What are the biggest issues facing Australian publishers today?
The big issues for publishers are similar to the issues that everyone in the content creation business faces – trying to find the right balance of making their content available as widely as possible while at the same time making sure that those who create and those who invest in creation can get a fair return and an incentive to keep creating and keep investing. We keep hearing that copyright inhibits innovation. Copyright is innovation. For many of the new digital services, paying for the products that drive their business are looked on as an unnecessary burden rather than as a cost of doing business.
Is there a need to raise AMPAL’s profile?
AMPAL does not aspire to becoming a household word. We need to raise our profile within the music publishing community and with the decision makers in government and the bureaucracy.
Where are the big areas of growth for music publishers?
Assuming the “copyleft” don’t get their way, there are plenty of exciting opportunities for publishers. There are lots of new ways to access music and new services to be licensed. Because publishers were not fully dependent on sales of plastic, they have not suffered to the same extent as the recording industry. Licensing their rights has always been at the heart of their business.
And the weakest links?
Fragmentation of rights licensing is a double-edged sword. Direct licensing can sometimes mean greater rewards. Sometimes it can mean greater complexity in licensing and the easier we make it for people to get a licence the better.
Are music publishers innovating?
There has been a number of song writing camps with publishers encouraging co-writes with well known writers. This has lead to some great collaborations and opportunities for developing writers.
Thom Yorke brought a lot of attention to Spotify when he recently announced he’d pulled his music from the service. Where does AMPAL stand on the business model of subscription services?
Music publishers believe in licensing and Spotify were one of those companies that recognised the need to have licences in place before setting up operations so we support them. Whether the Spotify model proves to be in the long term interest of encouraging new music is yet to be seen.
Which countries are setting good examples of how the digital era has altered the way they collect royalties in the digital era?
Australia has always been at the forefront of embracing new technologies and APRA/AMCOS have always been respected as one of the most responsive collective rights management societies.
The big collecting organisations are likely to be forced to change. The ACCC is taking submissions on APRA’s standard arrangements for licensing. And in Europe, the PRS for Music (U.K.), GEMA (Germany) and STIM (Sweden) are forming a pan-European licensing hub. What change to do you predict will come for the big societies?
The big collecting societies are beginning to change. Collective licensing is solidly established in Europe but the European Commission has been very frustrated with the inertia of the big societies and has been nipping at their heels. The proposed directive on collective management of rights is an example of this. And the withdrawal of mechanical rights from the European societies by major publishing companies was a seismic development with the ramifications still working their way through the system. However the societies in Europe are still at the heart of the licensing process, albeit with the new special purpose licensing vehicles like the CELAS deal with PRS and GEMA for EMI online licensing. But now we are seeing publishers in the U.S. withdrawing online performing rights from the societies and licensing them direct. We may start to see global deals being done out of the U.S. as publishers become more directly involved in licensing areas which have historically been the domain of the societies. This is a quantum leap in the fragmentation of rights licensing and may well cause confusion in some markets for some time to come. However it is easy to see why publishers in the U.S. became frustrated with the tight regulatory environment that ASCAP and BMI find themselves in – with Department of Justice consent decrees and a series of unfavourable rate court decisions.
You’ve been back in Australia a little while now? What are your thoughts on the biz and music community here compared to Europe?
I’ve always felt that there’s a strong sense of community in the music business here. APRA is a good case in point – the publishers and writers on the board are committed to getting the best outcome for the membership at large and there is nowhere near the level of animosity and suspicion that plagues some of the societies I’ve been involved with. Australian music continues to score significantly in international markets and although that’s important it’s also important that we continue to produce Australian music for Australians.
The Australian Copyright Council launches nationwide program of seminars
The Australian Copyright Council will be holding a series of ‘Working with Copyright’ seminars nationally throughout 2013. These seminars assist creators and consumers in dealing with copyright in the digital age.
AMPAL members qualify for a special discount of 10% off any individual seminar in the ‘Working with Copyright’ series. This excludes the creators’ seminars (Visual Artists & Photographers and Songwriters, Composers & Performing Artists) as these seminars have already been discounted.
Seminar Cities & Dates:
Adelaide > 13 – 15 March
Brisbane > 13 – 15 May
Sydney > 17 – 20 June
Canberra > 25 – 26 July
Melbourne > 19 – 22 August
Perth > 16 – 18 September
To view the seminar brochure & program, please visit http://www.copyright.org.au/seminars/
If you would like to enrol, all you need to do is complete the order form which can be found in the seminar brochure at the above link. You must write "AMPAL" and your latest invoice number anywhere on the form.
Copyright Hub launches pilot in UK
The Copyright Hub in the UK has launched a consultation pilot which can be found at www.copyrighthub.co.uk.
The creation of a digital copyright exchange (DCE) was recommended in the Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property. Richard Hooper then carried out a feasibility study looking at ways of making copyright licensing more fit for purpose for the digital age.
The Copyright Hub is envisioned as a web portal connected to a network of organisations from the audio-visual, publishing, music and images sectors of the creative industries, and also a forum for collaboration between the different creative sectors and their organisations. The current pilot is a small step towards this goal.