Concerned about the right to fair remuneration

The EU's DSM Directive and the Online and Retransmission Directive are to be incorporated into Norwegian copyright law. TONO submitted its views on the proposed legal text to the Ministry of Culture before the deadline on Friday last week.

Music creators must be strengthened in the face of AI

TONO is disappointed that the proposal for a new copyright law does not go far enough in regulating artificial intelligence in relation to music creators.

– There are Klondyke conditions within the AI ​​sector. Technology companies are supplying themselves with music without the permission of the music creators, without paying for it, and without respecting the fact that many music creators do not want their music to be used in AI training and for the generation of new AI music. The Ministry of Culture has had a unique, historic opportunity to strengthen Norwegian music creators in their encounters with AI companies. They have not used that opportunity, says CEO of TONO, Karl Vestli.

–It is important for both current and future generations of music creators that the Ministry gives copyright holders a simple, real and practical opportunity to make reservations, especially against commercial use of works for text and data mining purposes. The Ministry proposes that reservations should be made in a machine-readable format. This is not appropriate for musical works. We propose that a public register be established where rights organizations and others can give a general reservation against text and data mining, so that AI services must enter into agreements with rights organizations, as is the practice in other areas.

Concerned about the right to fair remuneration

The principle of “right to fair remuneration” was introduced into the Copyright Act in 2018. This was good news for composers and lyricists because it has strengthened TONO as their representative in negotiations with broadcasters, concert organizers, streaming services, and so on. It has now been proposed to exclude copyright organizations from the section. In practice, this would mean a significant weakening of the authors’ ability to obtain fair remuneration.

– The Ministry of Culture has proposed that Section 69 on the right to reasonable remuneration should only apply to the individual rights holder. This makes the principle almost worthless. Norwegian music creators have organized themselves in TONO, and it is through TONO that they will take up the fight if broadcasters, concert organizers, streaming services or others do not pay properly for them. Section 69 must therefore be retained as it was included in the law in 2018, says Vestli.

TONO is also concerned that it is proposed that rights organizations be kept out of the new Copyright Board. TONO has been calling for such a board for many years, but now the Ministry has proposed that this should only be for individual rights holders, not rights holders' organizations. It has also been proposed that it should be voluntary for the parties to handle disagreements here. TONO believes that this means in practice that the Copyright Board will have no effect.

Happy: Platform responsibility and the "two economies principle"

But there is also good news for composers and lyricists in the proposal for a new copyright law.

– YouTube and other user-generated platforms have now been given another clear legal requirement to take responsibility for the music their users upload, and thus to enter into agreements with TONO. It is also good news that the “two economies principle” has been included in the legal text. This means that TV distributors who distribute NRK, TV2 and other TV channels must have a TONO license for this in addition to the broadcasters. This is a great reason to be happy, says CEO Karl Vestli.

In the consultation, TONO has also commented on a number of other key points for TONO's members. You can read TONO's full consultation response by clicking here.

About TONO:

TONO was founded in 1928 and is a non-profit cooperative owned and managed by composers, lyricists and music publishers, and which manages the economic copyrights in their musical works. TONO grants permission for the use of protected music on radio, TV, the internet, concerts, cinema, etc. for a fee, and transfers its financial results each year to the rights holders of music that has been performed publicly. TONO has more than 40,000 members, but also works for millions of authors and music publishers from around the world. TONO gives music creators an economic basis to create new music, and collects and simplifies the licensing of protected music to music users. TONO had a turnover of NOK 864,6 million in 2022.

For more information:

Karl Vestli, CEO, email: karl.vestli (a) tono.no, mobile: 932 56,020
Willy Martinsen, Communications Director, Willy.martinsen (a) tono.no, tel. +47,909 65,254