Music Royalty Rates suspect of being inflated, Fair Trade Commission planned to take measures.

The charge of “license royalty” for incidental music in television commercials has again started disputes between groups of authors and users. Taiwan Television and one of the agency groups had taken the disputes to Fair Trade Commission on the other day. Taiwan Television reported that some agency group had requested an excessive amount of commercial music royalty suspect of boosting the price in advantage of copyright protection. Owing that the conviction of this case would involve with the market ecosystem for commercials and music, Fair Trade Commission decided to take charge after further investigation. It was heard that Fair Trade Commission tended to fine the agency group. Article of Arbitration Enforcement was included in the Copyright Law amended last July making agency groups negotiate with users based on royalty amount. If negotiation fails, an arbitrator will settle the royalty amount for both sides. Agency groups can no longer sue their adverse parties when negotiation breaks down. However, because the rules of the game are still unclear, relevant mechanism has not yet functioned properly. Meanwhile, if Fair Trade Commission makes any punishment, it may ruin the advantages agency groups have always had in terms of copyright. (2004.06)

CYJ/CHT