Spanish Collection Society Threatens Legal Action Against Group That Favors Copyleft & Creative Commons Music

from the the-attack-on-alternative-models-continues dept

Fri, Sep 24th 2010 9:17am — Mike Masnick

We've already covered ASCAP's really misguided attack on Creative Commons and others who support allowing more choice and options for artists. When I was recently in Germany, I was told repeatedly that the situation there is much worse, with the collection society, GEMA, not allowing musicians who are members to even give away their own music for free (multiple musicians showed me their secret websites that offered free music, which they couldn't promote to publicly, or GEMA would go after them -- again, for offering their own music for free). It's really amazing how much these collection societies are against giving artists real options.

The latest example comes to us via Paul Keating, who alerts us to the situation in Spain, where the collection society SGAE is making a series of legal threats against the organization EXGAE, which promotes things like "copyleft" licenses and Creative Commons licensing. SGAE claims that EXGAE is infringing on the trademark on their name -- even though it certainly seems like most people can tell the difference -- and is especially pissed off that EXGAE mentions SGAE on its website. The key issue, it seems, is that SGAE says EXGAE is using SGAE as a "smear reference" and "undermining the reputation of the SGAE."

This seems like pretty blatant bullying. Trademark doesn't mean that no one can use your name without permission. And, if pointing out that there are alternatives to the way you do business is a "smear" and "undermining your reputation," you probably have bigger issues to deal with.

Once again, we're left wondering: why are so many collection societies afraid to give the musicians they claim to represent choice and options when it comes to licensing their works? As Paul also pointed out, it's pretty amazing when you think about the comparison. The industry regularly puts out misleading and false claims calling people "pirates," but EXGAE discusses more options for artists, and they're told to shut up or face legal consequences.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: collection societies, copyleft, creative commons, spain
Companies: exgae, sgae

8 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

:Lobo Santo (profile), 24 Sep 2010 @ 9:35am

I'm just waiting...
...for the obligatory "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!" reference.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
cc (profile), 24 Sep 2010 @ 9:37am

If you are going to run a totalitarian regime, you must make sure your subjects have nowhere else to run.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
vadim (profile), 24 Sep 2010 @ 10:26am

Once again, we're left wondering: why are so many collection societies afraid to give the musicians they claim to represent choice and options when it comes to licensing their works?
The answer is pretty straightforward: They consider anybody who endangers their revenue stream as pirates.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
drewmerc (profile), 24 Sep 2010 @ 10:35am

...for the obligatory "nice sage fail newfag" 4chan reference.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
interval (profile), 24 Sep 2010 @ 12:15pm

Re:
"...for the obligatory "nice sage fail newfag" 4chan reference."

ha ha ha n00b u fail.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Opinionated Bloviator, 24 Sep 2010 @ 6:15pm

I always wondered what ex Australian Prime Ministers got up to when they are booted from office. Now I know. Just don't take his financial advice, It causes recessions!.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 24 Sep 2010 @ 9:24pm

Collection Societies Can Only Work In A Monopoly Situation
In a monopoly situation, they can count on an automatic presumption of guilt on the part of those they’re collecting money from. But if artists have a choice of representation, then suddenly the onus has to shift to the collection society to prove that it was the works of its members being used, and not somebody else. They can’t afford to do this in each and every case, so their whole business model falls apart.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Auditrix (profile), 25 Sep 2010 @ 10:31am

SGAE and EXGAE Pronunciation
According to an article by Catherine Saez that I re-tweeted (http://shar.es/0GGK4), in Spanish, SGAE is pronounced "esgae."

I think it has a compelling argument that "exgae" is confusing to many individuals in the music rights marketplace.
[ link to this | view in thread ]