SABAM, the Belgian collection society for authors, composers
and music publishers, has launched a legal action against the country’s three biggest
ISPs, arguing that they should be paying copyright levies for offering access to
their members' copyrights. No stranger to the courts, SABAM wants the court to rule that Internet access
providers Belgacom, Telenet and Voo should pay 3.4 percent of their turnover in
copyright fees for the use of music, because they make substantial profits from
offering high speed Internet connections that give users easy access to
copyright protected materials – legally and illegally – whilst hiding behind
their status as intermediary “without taking responsibility for the information
transmitted over their networks”
In a press release, SABAM noted that since 2000, revenues
generated from music featured in the physical media (primarily CD sales) have declined
by 54 percent, adding that this “huge loss” has not been compensated by
collections from online services like iTunes, YouTube and Spotify.
SABAM have been asking for voluntary levies from ISPs since
November 2011 and have now launched their claim in the Brussels Court of First Instance.
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