In a petition in the newspaper Vårt Land on Monday this week, over 70 church workers asked TONO to facilitate digital church services with simple regulations, reasonable prices and an efficient reporting system. TONO responds to the petition with a reader's article in today's newspaper. Read it here.
/ 03/02/2021 / Willy MartinsenIn a petition in the newspaper Vårt Land on Monday this week, over 70 church workers asked TONO to facilitate digital church services with simple regulations, reasonable prices, and an efficient reporting system.
TONO responds with a reader's contribution in today's edition of Vårt Land can be read here (behind paywall).
Vårt Land has devoted a lot of space to the digital church services. In a petition on February 1, many congregations stand behind three TONO frustrations. We thank you for the feedback, and promise that we are listening.
We are pleased that it is being noticed that TONO is "on the ball" after the reports in Vårt Land. Since March, we have been working to have information about digital church services available on our websites, we have daily contact with congregations, but we have now created more and even clearer information. Several measures are underway, including a collaboration with a congregation where the goal is to create a TONO guide. We would like more such collaborations. We also appreciate that the simplification of the synchronization area is being well received. It is the digital church services and concerts that led us and our Nordic sister societies and NCB last summer to begin the work that today means that congregations can obtain both the performance permit for live online church services and the synchronization permit for permanent recordings from TONO. This has made it easier than ever for congregations to clear music. Here we answer what we perceive to be the petition's three points of objection against TONO.
TONO only manages one of the two spheres of copyright, the economic one. The moral rights, which include the use of music in value-laden contexts such as politics and religion, are not managed by TONO, only by the author. For the area of synchronization, the issue is tangible because it includes the permanent production of copies of, for example, a church service. The religious community's own songbooks are obviously intended for use in church services, but it is different if Coldplay's "Fix you" is interpreted religiously and is juxtaposed with moving images from a church service. We will nevertheless take the petition's input into consideration, and promise to see if this is something that can be clarified and simplified.
TONO's members trust that we give their permission to use for a "reasonable fee", to quote the Copyright Act. This applies to NRK, Spotify, the concert organizer or the congregation. What is reasonable varies from area to area. We often enter into framework agreements with organizations on behalf of many, and then often achieve efficiency gains that allow us to reduce the price somewhat. Music creates value for companies, congregations and individuals both experientially and financially if there is an economy involved. Demanding lower TONO prices is demanding that composers pay less for their music.
Framework agreements, as mentioned, involve flexible solutions for reporting, and we find that we generally agree with congregations that take into account the needs of congregations and the rights of authors. We agree that a Word form is not up to date in 2021. Fortunately, we are only a few weeks away from having a new digital music reporting solution ready. We will take concrete initiatives to invite individual congregations as pilot users of the service, before we can gradually roll it out to the broadest group of users.
At TONO, we want to do as good a job as possible for both members and customers. We were quick to offer a corona tariff for digital concerts last spring, and during the same period, we exempted congregations from paying TONO to encourage them to start online services. We want framework agreements with organizations, and have changed the sync licensing of church services at the Nordic level. Soon we will be ready with the digital music reporting solution.
TONO and music rights should not be an obstacle to church services being broadcast live and available as recordings online. TONO is owned and managed by Norwegian composers, lyricists and music publishers. We want nothing more than for the music to be used, but we urge your understanding that the authors should also be paid decently for the value their work contributes.
Read more: 3 steps for clearing online church services