The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has re-authorised the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia Limited’s collective licensing arrangements for the public performance or broadcast of sound recordings and music videos subject to a number of conditions. Authorisation provides immunity form court action for conduct that might otherwiser be deemed to be anti competitive.
ACCC Chairman Graeme Samuel says the ACCC considers that the conditions are necessary to “ensure that PPCA’s collective licensing arrangements result in a net public benefit.”
PPCA is a copyright collecting society which represents the interests of record companies and Australian recording artists. Under PPCA’s collective licensing arrangements, owners of sound recordings grant PPCA a non-exclusive right to license the public performance and transmission rights of their sound recordings. The four major record companies in Australia – Sony BMG, EMI, Universal and Warner are licensors under PPCA’s arrangements.
“The ACCC accepts that PPCA’s collective licensing arrangements will result in public benefits through administrative, monitoring and negotiation cost savings for both copyright owners and users. The arrangements also facilitate compliance with copyright law and provide a convenient means to both record companies and users to access a range of sound recordings.
“While blanket licensing can be beneficial to both copyright users and owners, it allows owners of sound recordings to pool their rights and removes some of the competitive pressures that would exist if copyright owners competed individually to license their rights” says Samual.
“While the Copyright Tribunal of Australia has a role in looking at licence fees, the ACCC considers the arrangements can create scope for PPCA to exercise market power in the setting of licence fees and conditions because parties wishing to use copyright sound recordings have limited, if any, alternatives. Among other things, the ACCC has imposed a condition requiring PPCA to make publicly available a list of sound recordings used in a distribution period identifying which sound recordings it distributed licence fees for, and which sound recordings it did not distribute licence fees for. The ACCC considers that such a list would allow users to better appreciate which sound recordings are covered by PPCA’s blanket licence and assist users in considering whether directly dealing with individual copyright owners is a viable option for their licensing needs.”
The other conditions of authorisation require things like alternative dispute resolution procedures; guidelines outlining the circumstances in which it would consider entering into direct licenses; and written notice of proposed fee increases.
The ACCC has re-authorised PPCA’s collective licensing arrangements until 31 March 2011.