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Younison welcomes an open debate with new Sabam management

Posted by Kelvin on Jul 25, 2009 at 06:28

24 July 2009 – Brussels– The Belgian justice department has accused the collecting society SABAM of failing to properly distribute revenues collected on behalf of Belgian artists, launching criminal investigations against a number of ex-senior executives of the organisation.

Younison hopes that this case will pave the way for further transparency and accountability in the collection and distribution of digital music revenues to artists.

Younison would like to emphasize that the new management of SABAM - who is not affected by the ongoing investigation - has offered to meet with them in August to discuss ways to improve transparency and accountability of the current system. “This is a positive step forward in what we trust will be a constructive debate in the interest of authors and of the music industry”, said Kelvin Smits, director of Younison. “This development is an indication of the goodwill of SABAM’s new management and of the need to establish new and stringent transparency standards in the way collecting societies operate on behalf of their authors”.

Younison calls on Belgian policymakers to modify the proposed new Belgian law on the control of collecting societies to ensure that artists are fully protected for the monetisation of their digital rights. “We have been eagerly awaiting an improvement of the current outdated rules which has now been delayed for six years”, added Kelvin Smits.

While Younison welcomes the developments in Belgium, it also calls for pan-European harmonisation of the collection and distribution of digital music rights. “This is a cross border issue requiring a European wide solution”, said Kelvin Smits. “As digital content distribution knows no borders, this situation should be a call-to-action for European policymakers and politicians”. Accountability and transparency standards are needed across the EU to ensure all national collecting societies provide timely reports and payments for the digital exploitation of artists' work. European policymakers and legislators will need to take action in the interest of European artists. A modernisation of EU copyright rules to ensure transparency of the collecting societies’ activities is long overdue.

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