The EC believes the reciprocal agreements made between societies to enable the international licensing of works could be anti-competitive and the societies could face substantial fines. It was initially sparked off by complaints from broadcasters RTL and Music Choice, who argued in favour of pan-European licences for their Europe-wide broadcast services.
Alliance MD, Steve Porter, said, ‘We do not accept the Commission’s allegations of infringement of competition law or the need for any threatened punitive action against societies. However, we are in any event at the forefront of initiating new models for pan European licensing and have actively embraced various recent initiatives emanating from the Commission.’
Alliance Group CEO Adam Singer said, ‘We’ve been hit by the convergence twister, we are no longer in analogue Kansas, we know the digital brick road is about competition, and we are clicking our ruby slippers as hard as we can to get to the online future. Brussels, what more would you have us do?’
More on this in future issues of M.
This article originally appeared in M19, published March 2006.