NMPA_International_Survey_12th_Edition

APPENDIX
C
SPAIN UPDATE
NMPA INTERNATIONAL SURVEY TWELTH EDITION APPENDIX C: U.K., JAPAN, GERMANY, FRANCE, CANADA, ITALY AND SPAIN UPDATES
Sales in Spain were slightly up in 2002, according to
IFPI,which reported a 1.6% increase in units to 80.5
million and a corresponding rise in value of 0.9% to
i685.1 million ($644.8 million). Authors and publishers
society SGAE reported its smallest percentage rise in
revenue for a decade during 2002, with collected royalties
increasing by a mere 2% to i255.4 million ($273.3
million).Revenue from international rights fell by 15.2%
in 2002 to i23.8 million ($25.4 million),while the group
pointed out that the average increase in rights collection
during the past five years is still 12%.
Authors’ royalties collected from live concerts in
Spain increased by 25.5% to i13.1 million ($14 million).
And for the first time,SGAE published its revenue generated
from Internet downloads and ring tones; the two
areas generated a total of i1.18 million ($1.26 million),
up 62% on the previously unpublished amount in 2001.
Meanwhile, the group has attacked a new intellectual-property
law being drawn up by Spain's culture
ministry, maintaining that the legislation would cost its
members up to i10.4 billion ($11.5 billion),along with
25,000 jobs and the closure of 4,000 small and medium
companies. SGAE further said the proposed law could
lead to the group’s canceling its annual Premios de la
Musica awards ceremony, closing its seven international
offices, and ending both its system of scholarships
and its music dictionary publishing operations and
other cultural studies.
The new law would in effect cancel the existing
royalty on blank CDs and cassettes and exempt bars
and hotels from paying the public entertainment tax.
The draft bill, purportedly aimed at bringing Spain
in line with the European Directive on authors’ rights,
seeks to create an Intellectual Property Committee that
among other things would set the amount businesses
pay for authors’ rights.The bill has also brought strong
opposition from artists’ association AIE, music publishers’
body AEDEM, music authors and composers
association ACAM, professional music publishers
organization OPEM,and symphonic music publishers
association AEEMS.
Under pressure from the music industry and others,
the Spanish government has promised tough new antipiracy
measures. The promise came from Justice minister
Jose Maria Michavila during a “Fraud Against Intellectual
Property” seminar held in Madrid on November 20-21,
2002,organized by SGAE.The society presented a survey
during the seminar claiming that nearly 23% of all CDs
bought in Spain are pirated (not including domestic
downloading), and that 62% of people who buy illegal
CDs never buy legal sound-carriers.
Michavila told the seminar that, effective April 28,
2003,a modification of Article 282 of Spain’s criminal justice
law doing away with the need for a prior complaint
to be lodged before acting against street sellers would be
enforced,and that the penal code would be changed to
include “aggravating circumstances,” such as the use of
minors or membership of a criminal organization.
SGAE maintains that 40 music-related businesses
closed in Spain in 2002 because of piracy, adding that
copyright generates i1 billion ($1 billion) a year in
Spain, of which SGAE administers 25% in terms of
authors’ rights.SGAE’s survey estimates that 20.7 million
illegal CDs—or 22.9% of all CDS—are sold in Spain per
year.According to the group, 23 million blank CDs were
shipped in Spain in 1998,with that number escalating to
138 million in 2001, with most of those used in street
piracy or home downloading.The report also found that
Spanish-language CDs account for 69.1% of all illegal
sales, while English-language repertoire accounts for
28.6%. In the legal sales market, 56.3% of repertoire is in
Spanish,32.4% in English,and 11.3% is instrumental.
The rampant piracy problem has had noticeable
effects on the Spanish music industry landscape.
Labels’ organization AFYVE canceled its annual
Premios Amigo awards event to protest the high level
of piracy, and roughly 85% of Spain’s music radio stations
played no music for one hour on June 11,2002 as
part of an anti-piracy “Day Without Music” protest
organized by AFYVE.AFYVE, SGAE, and artists association
AIE have been joined by retail associations and
other industry bodies in “Mesa Antipiratería,” a committee
to fight Europe’s worst piracy situation.
At its May 7, 2002 general assembly, SGAE’s 64,000
members voted 80%-20% to finance a three-year, $5.8
million anti-piracy plan by paying an additional 0.51%
from rights due to them in 2002—rising to 0.72% in
2003 and 2004—above the 15.43% they were paying
toward SGAE administration costs. The 30-point SGAE
plan includes funding public-awareness advertising;
lobbying for legislative changes to allow fast-track
court cases and heavier penalties; and commissioning
academic studies to examine the damage that piracy
does to the cultural sector.
Meanwhile,members of the Spanish music industry
have grown increasingly critical of the government’s
lack of commitment to helping sell domestic music
abroad. While such countries as France, Belgium and
Holland maintain official cultural export offices, Spain
has lagged behind.
On February 25, 2003, the Director General of the
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Dr.
Kamil Idris, and the Spanish Vice-Minister for
Education, Culture and Sport, Mariano Zab’a Lasala,
signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU)
agreeing on the growing economic and cultural importance
of copyright and related rights industries and
stressing the need to generate greater public awareness
of and respect for copyright and related rights.
The MOU, which covers training, public outreach
and information exchange, adopts a broad approach
to copyright by stressing the importance of the development
and management of cultural industries as well
as public education and outreach and further provides
a framework within which to promote copyright and
related rights.It also seeks to support efforts to develop
the copyright and related rights industries of Latin
American and the Caribbean countries.
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