Dubious legal background of the main source of income of the SGAE

[sohanuzzaman56]

This Tuesday, May 18, the general assembly of the SGAE (General Society of Authors and Editors) took place in Madrid., in which the annual accounts for 2009 were approved, in which, despite the general economic crisis, the entity distributed 345.5 million euros among its partners .

The most striking fact is that for the first time, social income from the collection of rights for private copying, also known as digital canon , has surpassed the income from copyright generated by the sale of records as the main source of income for the SGAE.

Downloads

This fact would not attract attention if it were not fo btc users r the fact that the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union, Verica Trstenjak, ruled that the application of this fee is illegal and incompatible with Community legislation because it indiscriminately taxes all equipment and media without considering which ones will "presumably" be used to make private copies .

The music industry blames the huge boom in free download platforms for the multi-million dollar losses it has suffered in recent years. That is why it is trying to take the largest number of linking sites and download platforms to court, accusing them of theft.

Despite the fact that these platforms allow the files to be obtained for free, Internet users consider that having free access to music is one more factor, but it is not even the most important one; what they really value is the possibility that the Internet gives them to freely access songs and groups, something that they do not get from the offers of the record companies.

The new legal alternatives proposed by the industry include iTunes and Spotify . Do you think that these alternatives will put an end to piracy ? Or do you think that their prices, still abusive for many (0.99€ per song on iTunes and 9.99€/month for the Premium subscription on Spotify) taking into account the reduction in variable costs (CDs, cover printing, boxes, transport, etc.), are still the perfect excuse for free downloads to function at full capacity (link websites, p2p)?