Creative Commons - Belgium

["Mark Van den Borre" <mark AT markvdb.be>]

Hi Sévérine,

2007/11/27, Severine Dusollier <severine.dusollier AT fundp.ac.be>:

> If you play only CC-licensed music and can prove it, you should not pay
> anything to the Sabam.
But we would have to pay "billijke vergoeding/rémunération équitable"
right? Have a look at our situation form the following perspective:
* The legal way would cost money.
* The CC artists we play would never see a cent of this money.
* The distribution of the money to artists is a mess.
* Simim's license is scheduled to be withdrawn 2007/02/22, the day before 
FOSDEM
* Music between tracks is not FOSDEM core business
* Many CC musicians do not want their audience to pay money to the
"billijke vergoeding/rémunération équitable" monopoly.
* Many free software enthousiasts don't want to strengthen the teeth
that bite digital freedom.

Are there legally safe or tested ways around this?

What about:
* using MIDI files?
* asking for a 0.01€ entry fee to make it a "non-public" event and as
such exempt from "billijke vergoedig/rémunération équitable"

> If there is any problem I could intervene.
That is really nice of you!

> BUT (and it is a big BUT), it is true that if some artists are members of
> the Sabam (and of any European collecting society with which SABAM
> collaborates to collect copyright royalties), those artists are normally not
> allowed to license their works under a CC license. Therefore, for those
> artists, the licenses they put on their works is not valid for the Sabam.
> THis is a big issue right now for CC.
> Anyway, I would not raise this point to the Sabam, let them find this legal
> intricacy by themselves.
Shouldn't they sue their own members here, and not organisers?

Mark
-- 
Mark Van den Borre
Noormannenstraat 113
3000 Leuven, België
+32 486 961726