COPYRIGHT BODIES PREPARE TO LOCK HORNS

A dispute between the British Phonographic Industry Limited (BPI) and the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) will soon be heading for the UK's Copyright Tribunal. BPI, a record industry trade association, represents a variety of different manufacturers, producers and sellers of audio and audiovisual recordings of music and other data. Anyone who wants to perform any reproductive copying of musical works for defined products in DVD video format has to get a BPI licence. Meanwhile, MCPS -- which collects and distributes "mechanical" royalties to composers and music publishers who are its members -- grants recording licences under its current scheme and may grant licences under a further proposed scheme. The BPI has complained that both the current scheme and the proposed scheme are unreasonable and has asked the Copyright Tribunal to adjudicate. In particular the BPI is objecting to a "very substantial and unjustified proposed increase in licensing fees". In the spirit of brotherly love neither the BPI nor the MCPS have put details of their dispute on their websites. The IPKat would like to hear on theipkat@yahoo.co.uk from anyone who can tell us more.



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