Artists seek to collect licensing fees
You may have never heard of them, but today the Belizean Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers announced some big plans that are sure to spark controversy. At a press conference held this morning at the Belize City House of Culture, B.S.C.A.P. declared its campaign to seriously reshuffle the way Belizeans and Belizean companies think about music, and according to Joseph Guerrero, Chairman of the Board, that change comes at a price.
Joseph Guerrero, Chairman of the Board, B.S.C.A.P.
?The Belizean Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers was organized in order to protect the economic and moral integrity of the Belizean creative community. Belize has a vibrant community of creativeness and a lot of the artists, I believe, don?t get their just desserts. So in recognizing this, we organized to help them protect their rights and to license their creativity. There are certain ways that we can go about licensing some of the establishments here. The licenses could go by percentage, in some cases actually, it will be on a per use basis such as in commercials, when you have music and images, that?s what you call synchronization rights and we would just have to charge per use. For whatever music it is they want to use, we will charge per use. But it?s actually going to be a combination of both: percentage and per use.?
Allison Demas, C.E.O., C.O.T.T.
?There are several organizations, in fact in most countries of the world, there are organizations like B.S.C.A.P. B.S.C.A.P. has been admitted into the international confederation CISAC and soon will be entering into a group within our region, Caribbean copyright link. You know this happens throughout the world, it?s not an unusual practice. Copyright laws are basically the same throughout the world and it is a legal obligation, that if you use someone?s music, you have to pay them.?
Some of the institutions B.S.C.A.P. will try to collect from include hotels, bars, clubs, restaurants, radio stations, t.v. stations, and the government of Belize. And though the fee structure for licensing hasn’t been decided, one thing has … B.S.C.A.P. will also be acting as a collection agent for international songwriters, which means that aside from paying royalties on local music, Belizeans will also be paying for utilizing music from international artists. If you would like more information on the Society, please visit their website at www.bscap.org.
