<div class="gmail_quote"><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>
From: Ian Hickling <<a href="mailto:transplanfm@hotmail.com" target="_blank">transplanfm@hotmail.com</a>><br>
<div>
<br>
Good thinking Alex<br>
I could contest every one of your "responses" but I'm sure everyone else would be bored to tears.<br>The only one I would pick up on is "<i>Storing and copying musical works is an activity pursuant to the process of using them for gain"</i><br>
I suggest that's equivalent to saying that having a car is the same as driving it.<br>
Clearly a little insecure as a piece of logic.<br><br>
<p><span>------------------------------------</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Ian Hickling<br></span></b><b><span>Partner<br></span></b>
<br>
</p><hr>
From: <a href="mailto:tlr@gairloch.co.uk" target="_blank">tlr@gairloch.co.uk</a><br>To: <a href="mailto:ian@transplan.uk.com" target="_blank">ian@transplan.uk.com</a>; <a href="mailto:phil@bcfm.org.uk" target="_blank">phil@bcfm.org.uk</a>; <a href="mailto:cma-l@mailman.commedia.org.uk" target="_blank">cma-l@mailman.commedia.org.uk</a><br>
Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2011 20:19:35 +0000<br>Subject: Re: [cma-l] Free Community Radio Seminar<br><br>
<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"><i>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.</i></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><i>We actively pursue royalties owing to us using all the appropriate legal remedies</i></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><i>Storing and copying musical works is an activity pursuant to the process of using them for gain.</i></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"><i>Administrative overheads and diseconomies of scale mean that it would be unfair on our larger users if we charged strictly in direct proportion.</i></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><i>See our annual accounts. We return almost 90% of our royalty income to our members who create the music</i></div><i></i>
<div><br>6 - How do you justify the rates charged to Community Radio compared with those paid by commercial broadcasters?<br><font face="Calibri"><i>We charge both sectors virtually identical rates</i></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><i><font face="Calibri">Administrative overheads and diseconomies of scale, yada</font></i></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><i><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></i><br>
</div>
<div>I'm sure there are more that we could add.<br><font face="Calibri">Yes:</font></div>
<div><i><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></i></div>
<div><i><font face="Calibri"></font></i> </div>
<div><font size="3" face="Calibri">Alex </font></div>
<div><font size="3" face="Calibri"><i>(Sorry, I've forgotten the emoticon for tongue-in-cheek!)</i></font></div>
<div><br></div>
<blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 0px; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 0px;">
<p><span>------------------------------------</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Ian Hickling<br></span></b><b><span>Partner<br><br></span></b></p></blockquote></div></blockquote></div>
</div>