Monday 4 October 2010

Spanish civil war? SGAE takes aim at EXGAE

EXGAE: serious lobbying
or smear campaign?
"Spanish Collecting Society Targets Group Proposing Alternative Royalty System", by Catherine Saez (on Intellectual Property Watch here) describes what looks a little bit like a declaration of war.  The incumbent copyright collecting society Sociedad General de Autores y Editores (SGAE) -- an organisation well known for its litigation before the Court of Justice of the European Union -- has reportedly told alternative royalty model lobby group EXGAE to cease activity or face some litigation of its own.  The legal threats are based on unfair competition and trade mark infringement since, say SGAE, EXGAE is pronounced “esgae” in Spanish.

SGAE: a target for criticism and
vilification from several sources
The IP Watch article explains that EXGAE claims to be "not against copyrights and royalties" but that it disagrees with the manner in which royalties are processed and distributed by the SGAE which, according to one spokesperson "only promotes well-known artists and does not support the creation and dissemination of music in the digital era".  Among other things, EXGAE encourages the use of CopyLeft music, under Creative Commons with commercial use for small shops wishing to have music in the background.

By now, according to the 1709 Blog's calculations, something further must have happened. Can anyone advise?

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