On Thursday, TONO's CEO, Cato Strøm, participated in a parliamentary hearing on the new law on collective management of copyright. See the contribution here.
/ 22/01/2021 / Willy MartinsenOn Thursday, January 21, the Storting held an open video conference hearing on Prop. 53 L (2020-2021) Act on collective management of copyright etc. CEO Cato Strøm presented TONO's input on the bill. You can watch the video here, and read the text below.
The TONO cooperative was founded in 1928 and represents composers, lyricists and music publishers. TONO has 36,000 members and also manages the world repertoire in Norway on behalf of foreign management companies. In 2019, TONO had a turnover of approx. 771 MNOK, with an administrative cost of approx. 10,5%.
TONO is owned and governed by its members. Over the years, we have strived for member democracy and transparency, which is visible in our articles of association regarding representativeness, gender balance and employee participation. The organization is adapted to modern corporate legislation in every aspect.
The Ministry has largely taken our input into account in the preparation of the draft law. It is particularly important for TONO that the provisions that ensure uniform conditions of competition appear to be in place. So-called independent management organizations – referred to in the directive as “independent management entities” – are operated on purely commercial principles, and not as non-profit organizations. These commercial companies must be subject to the same requirements as collective management organizations when they carry out the same activities and compete in the same market as TONO.
However, we would like to point out the seriousness of the matter in a comment the Ministry has given in the proposal's section 9.4.5., (page 83 first paragraph), to the proposal's §28 where the Ministry writes; quote: «For example, remuneration models based on general turnover could be considered to be in breach of the provision if other more accurate methods of recording the use of works and audiences are available and can be used without entailing a disproportionate increase in administrative costs.”
Nowhere in the directive, and it is particularly the directive's Art. 16 which is the relevant provision here, can we see that the Ministry has grounds to express this. As far as we know, no other implemented laws within the EU have commented on this.
We perceive this statement in the preparatory work as an intervention and position in free negotiations between the parties, and the Ministry's words will certainly be used against all types of rights holders both in negotiations and in litigation. We point out here that turnover-based tariffs are the most widely used and common in the entire copyright world.
TONO will ask the committee to point this out in its recommendation to the Storting and we will be happy to send a proposed worded comment on this.
We also support Norwaco's consultation input, and in particular the description of the balance of power between the rights holder side – represented by the management companies – and the user side, represented in part by large, multinational companies. There must be no doubt that we on the rights holder side are the weak party in this picture.
Cato Strom
Adm. Manager