Europas kompositörers lobbyorganisation ECSA och den världsomfattande kompositörsorganisationen CIAM kommenterar i ett pressmeddelande Google/YouTubes förhandlingar om nya musiklicenser med upphovsrättssällskapen PRS och GEMA. ECSA – The European Composer & Songwriter Alliance – representerar 12 000 kompositörer i 24 europeiska länder. Skap är ordförande.

Oslo 8 April 2009

ECSA/CIAM Statement on Google/YouTube

ECSA and CIAM note with concern the recent action taken by Google/YouTube.

The European Composer & Songwriter Alliance (ECSA) and the International Council of Creators of Music (CIAM) note with concern the recent action taken by Google/YouTube in their negotiations for new licences with music collecting societies PRS for Music (UK) and GEMA (Germany).

ECSA and CIAM regard Google’s actions as nothing more than a cynical and coercive public relations ploy by which they are apparently trying to set users against creators. ECSA and CIAM are increasingly concerned that Google’s precipitous and unjustified move presages further use of such tactics in their negotiations with other collecting societies throughout Europe and may establish a pattern for how such negotiations will be conducted in the future. Google has made plain that it places little value on the music which has been a major driver of YouTube’s popularity. Further by spreading misinformation as to the negotiating positions of those who seek to ensure that composers and songwriters receive fair remuneration for the use of their works, Google once again shows its contempt for all creators of artistic works.

Google is evidently not prepared to countenance paying a fair price for the music which it uses (and to provide full and transparent data as to that use) yet it is hard to imagine how their business model will work without music.

European Composer & Songwriter Alliance (ECSA)

c/o European House for Culture

Place Flagey 18

B-1050 Brussels

Belgium

Email: info [at] composeralliance [dot] org

Phone, Patrick Rackow, ECSA spokesperson: +44 20 7636 2929

ECSA – the European Composer & Songwriter Alliance –  represents 12 000 members in 36 organisations of Composers and Songwriters in 24 European countries.

ECSA is the lobbyist organisation speaking with one voice in the name of all European composers and songwriters and is formed by the three main genre specific networks of the composers in Europe:

APCOE – Alliance of Popular Music Composer Organisations in Europe

ECF – European Composers Forum

FFACE – Federation of Film and Audio-visual Composers of Europe