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Attachment: SpanishdecisionPR.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document

SPANISH COURT RECOGNIZES FOR THE FIRST TIME THAT THERE IS MUSIC THAT  
IS NOT REPRESENTED BY COLLECTING SOCIETIES

Spanish bar owner does not have to pay license fees to Spain’s  
primary collecting society for CC-licensed music

Barcelona, Spain & San Francisco, USA — March 23, 2006

Last month, the Lower Court number six of Badajoz, a city in  
Extremadura, Spain, ruled that a bar owner did not have to pay  
license fees to the main Spanish collecting society — Sociedad  
General de Autores y Editores (“SGAE”) for his use of Creative  
Commons-licensed music.

In the Fall of 2005, the main SGAE sued Ricardo Andrés Utrera  
Fernández, the owner of Metropol, a disco bar located in in Badajoz  
alleging that he had failed to pay SGAE’s license fee of 4.816,74 €  
for the period from November 2002  to August 2005 for public  
performance of music managed by the collecting society.

On February 17th, 2006, the court rejected the collecting society’s  
claims because the owner of the bar proved that the music he was  
using was not managed by the society.  The music performed in the bar  
was licensed under CC licenses that allows that public display since  
the authors have already granted those rights.  Specifically, the  
judge said:

“The author possesses some moral and economic rights on his creation.  
And the owner of these rights, he can manage them as he considers  
appropriate, being able to yield the free use, or hand it over  
partially. "Creative Commons" licenses are different classes of  
authorizations that the holder of his work gives for a more or less  
free or no cost use of it. They exist as … different classes of  
licenses of this type … they allow third parties to be able to use  
music freely and without cost with greater or minor extension; and in  
some of these licenses, specific uses require the payment of  
royalties. The defendant proves that he makes use of music that is  
handled by their authors through these Creative Commons  licenses. “

The full text of the decision (in Spanish) is available here (http:// 
www.internautas.org/archivos/sentencia_metropoli.pdf)

This case sets a new precedent because previously, every time that  
the SGAE claimed a license fee from a bar, a restaurant or a shop for  
public performance of music, the courts have ruled in their favor on  
the basis that the collecting society represents practically all the  
authors.  This case shows that there is more music that can be  
enjoyed and played publicly than that which is managed by the  
collecting societies.

Unfortunately, the current membership requirements of collecting  
societies such as SGAE, which requires musicians to assign rights to  
the society, means that their members are currently unable to release  
their works to the public under a Creative Commons license.   
Consequently, all artists who choose to CC-license their creativity  
currently cannot be members of SGAE.

“This decision demonstrates that authors can choose how to manage  
their rights for their own benefit and anyone can benefit from that  
choice, too. I expect that collecting societies will understand that  
something has to change to face this new reality,” said Ignasi  
Labastida, Project Lead for Creative Commons in Spain.

 “This case shows that both bar owners and Spanish courts recognize  
that there are new and diverse forms of music emerging,” Creative  
Commons Chairman & CEO Lawrence Lessig said, “I do hope, however,  
that we can work with SGAE and other collecting societies so that  
musicians have the freedom to choose when they want their music CC- 
licensed and when they want to be represented by a collecting society.”

About Creative Commons Spain

Creative Commons Spain is collaboration between Creative Commons  
Corporation and the University of Barcelona. For general Information  
(in Spanish) visit their site at http://es.creativecommons.org/.

About Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a not-for-profit organization, founded in 2001,  
that promotes the creative re-use of intellectual and artistic works— 
whether owned or in the public domain. Creative Commons licences  
provide a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors,  
artists, and educators that build upon the "all rights reserved"  
concept of traditional copyright to offer a voluntary "some rights  
reserved" approach. It is sustained by the generous support of  
various foundations including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur  
Foundation, the Omidyar Network Fund, the Hewlett Foundation, and the  
Rockefeller Foundation as well as members of the public. For general  
information, visit http://creativecommons.org

Contact

Ignasi Labastida i Juan
Project Lead, CC Spain
ilabastida AT ub.edu

Mia Garlick
General Counsel, Creative Commons
mia AT creativecommons.org

Press Kit

http://creativecommons.org/presskit