Meet on duplicate music copyright
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Govt seeks to address woes of royalty collection before Asean market integration
The Intellectual Property Department will soon call on copyright owners and music companies to discuss duplicate music copyrights, which create royalty-collection problems, to prepare for market liberalisation in Asean.
Pajchima Tanasanti, director-general of the department, said it would brainstorm with copyright owners, songwriters and record companies on this issue.
The meeting will aim to ensure fair returns to all involved as well as prepare the Thai music industry for internationalisation under the Asean Economic Community.
Since 1995, the department has attempted to include music copyright as a controlled service. However, since the rise of new music companies, the regulation could not control all involved enterprises, so the department needs to revise it.
The problem of duplicate copyrights on music and lyrics arises when songwriters sell their product to different firms. When the songwriter changes their companies, more than one entity owns the same copyright.
According to the department, about 10,000 songs in Thailand have duplicated copyright, mostly old tunes that have been frequently reproduced.
As a short-term solution, the department has ordered the temporarily suspension of royalty claims on duplicated licences. In the long run, it will seek to amend the Copyright Act to give a committee authority to oversee royalties to ensure fair benefit to all.
Pajchima said having such a special committee would also make the Thai music industry more internationalised as it would have the same system of royalty collection as foreign countries.
Meanwhile, the department will discuss with the National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission the problem of digital-signal violation. Pajchima said such violations breached intellectual-property rights. Her department and the NBTC will urgently seek measures to prevent and suppress such crimes.
