Fair Trade Commission Warns that Copyright Disputes Shall Follow the Copyright Law for Conciliation.

Disputes between the agency group and TV station were reconciled through the mediation of Taiwan Television and Musical Copyright Association Taiwan (MCAT).  Charges against each were withdrawn and disputes have been temporarily settled.  However, Fair Trade Commission warns that if disputes occur in regard to license royalities of the agency group and the user, they should follow the Copyright Law as to seek for reconciliation and solution to dissolve relevant licensing controversy.  Otherwise, there will still be concerns of violating the Fair Trade Law.

 

The charge of “license royalty” for incidental music in television commercials has always created tension between authors and agency groups, and lawsuits were induced consequently.  In the past, agency groups possessed absolute advantage in setting the amount of license royalty.  If users like TV stations were not willing to pay for license royalty, agency groups would sue the responsible person of the adverse party.  On the other hand, users also reported to Fair Trade Commission that agency groups charged excessive amount of royalties generating monopolization of the market and violation of the fair trade system.

 

Fair Trade Commission said, copyright agency groups belonged to legal monopoly business.  Agency groups including MCAT shall not abuse their state of monopoly. (2004.08)

CYJ/CHT