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<DIV><FONT size=3 face=Calibri>Playing Devil's Advocate for interest Ian, I
could anticipate some of the answers from PRS to your questions:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> <BR>1 - What is your legal basis for demanding
payments?<BR><FONT face=Calibri><EM>The Copyright, Designs & Patents Act
1988, Sec 116-123, under which PRS has the status of a statutorily
recognized licensing body operating am approved licensing scheme on behalf of
the copyright holders.</EM></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>2 - In the event of failure or refusal, what action do you take and how
successful have you been?</DIV>
<DIV><EM>We actively pursue royalties owing to us using all the appropriate
legal remedies</EM></DIV>
<DIV><BR>3 - How do you justify asking for Royalties for storing and copying
musical works - as opposed to the process of using them for
gain?<BR><EM>Storing and copying musical works is an activity pursuant to the
process of using them for gain.</EM></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>4 - How do you justify asking for Royalties which are not proportioned to
the rate of use of musical works?<BR><FONT face=Calibri><EM>Administrative
overheads and diseconomies of scale mean that it would be unfair on our larger
users if we charged strictly in direct proportion.</EM></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>5 - How do you spend every £1000 for instance that you draw in
Royalties?</DIV>
<DIV><EM>See our annual accounts. We return almost 90% of our royalty income to
our members who create the music</EM></DIV><EM></EM>
<DIV><BR>6 - How do you justify the rates charged to Community Radio
compared with those paid by commercial broadcasters?<BR><FONT
face=Calibri><EM>We charge both sectors virtually identical
rates</EM></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>7 - How do you justify the rates charged to Restricted Service Licence
operators compared with those paid by full-time Licensees?<BR><EM><FONT
face=Calibri>Administrative overheads and diseconomies of scale,
yada</FONT></EM></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>8 - How do you justify the rates charged to small stations which
broadcast a large proportion of unsigned as opposed to mainstream
music?<BR><EM><FONT face=Calibri>Stations whose total use of our members'
music is less than 15% of broadcasting time are charged a royalty rate
of just 1%. We have to treat stations on a statistical basis along with the
bulk of the radio industry which derives enormous value from exploitation of our
members' repertoire. The overhead costs for both parties in recording,
analysing and reconciling individual track data would almost
certainly outweigh any potential royalty reductions.</FONT></EM><BR></DIV>
<DIV>I'm sure there are more that we could add.<BR><FONT
face=Calibri>Yes:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><EM><FONT face=Calibri>Are you willing to operate a group scheme for the
not-for-profit sector which would aggregate their usage, and apportion
royalties on a strictly proportional basis, thus avoiding most of the
problems of diseconomies of scale.</FONT></EM></DIV>
<DIV><EM><FONT face=Calibri></FONT></EM> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3 face=Calibri>Alex </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3 face=Calibri><EM>(Sorry, I've forgotten the emoticon for
tongue-in-cheek!)</EM></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
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<P class=ecxMsoNormal><SPAN>------------------------------------</SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 12pt" class=ecxMsoNormal><B><SPAN
style="COLOR: rgb(38,38,38)">Ian
Hickling<BR></SPAN></B><B><SPAN>Partner<BR><BR></SPAN></B></P></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>