Brazil's Music Collection Societies Convicted Of Price Fixing

from the protecting-artists? dept

Fri, Mar 22nd 2013 2:24pm — Mike Masnick

Almost exactly a year ago we wrote about how Brazil's performance rights organization, ECAD (which is the trade association for the Brazilian equivalents of ASCAP, BMI and SESAC), was trying to shake down anyone who embedded a YouTube video, even though ECAD already had an agreement with YouTube. Basically, they were trying to collect twice for the same thing. Around that time, it also was revealed that ECAD's directors were under investigation for providing no information on how it collects or distributes revenue... and then granting its directors huge bonuses.

Now, it appears those were the least of ECAD's problems, because (as reader Ninja passes along), ECAD and the six music licensing agencies that make up its members have been convicted of being an illegal cartel engaged in price fixing, and told to pay $38 million in fines. The fine is clear that they cannot use money collected for artists to pay this fine.

The details sound like a classic case of price fixing. The leadership of the different organizations would get together in a room and agree to set rates. Investigators even found the pricing tables shared among the organizations. It also didn't help matters that ECAD had not allowed another organization to join ECAD in 30 years. That spoke to it being a bit of a cartel. ECAD claims it's going to appeal the decision, but having direct pricing tables shared among different organizations is a tough thing to overcome.

ECAD has also been given six months to basically reorganize its entire performance rights/collections set up so that it's not illegal, leaving some to wonder how the entire industry may change. This is one of the reasons why we're less than enthusiastic about efforts that seek to expand the power of organizations like this. Over and over again we see such collections efforts abused, such that artists aren't actually being helped, but harmed.

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Filed Under: anti-trust, brazil, cartel, price fixing
Companies: ecad

16 Comments

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Reader Comments

The First Word

“

I happen to have access to a pretty well known musician in Brazil so I managed to have some pretty amazing conversations about this and had the opportunity to understand what THE ARTISTS think about it (via his connections and so on). The fact is that aside of a few examples (mainly the famous ones) most artists HATE ECAD and think the current copyright system is insane. To my surprise they think exactly like me: there should be some sort of protection but it needs to be narrow and sensible. Suing teens for downloading is not something they approve.

The most common worry is not how money is being lost to eventual downloads but how the insanely easy availability is simply alienating people. I explain: they stop caring who wrote or composed the song, they barely take notice of who is actually performing. The worst problem today is attribution of who did what in a performance. I told him about private "trackers" and how they form communities around a determined subject be it animation, movies, tv shows and he found it interesting.

You see, when the MAFIAA and associated morons say they care about the artists, creators we should actually interpret they care about their artists, their creators and even then they care only for those that generate profit for THEM (the MAFIAA structure itself).

In any case, I'm doing my part in raising as much awareness as possible.

Now a bit of curiosity in the case: the case was brought by an association of cable tv operators due to the abusive value ECAD was demanding. I found this ironically amusing ;)

—Ninja

”

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Internet Zen Master (profile), 22 Mar 2013 @ 2:45pm

Hmm...
I wonder if anyone's willing in a government-level position is to investigate groups like the RIAA and GEMA under similar pretenses. Unlikely, but it's been far from "business-as-usual" since the beginning of 2013, so you never know.

As the Zen Master says, "We'll see."
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Mar 2013 @ 2:47pm

Please let GEMA be next, someone really needs to expose that racket.
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This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it

out_of_the_blue, 22 Mar 2013 @ 2:52pm

Hmm, and yet you're indifferent to Google and Microsoft
having far larger rackets (over the same time frame) with monopoly, illegal leveraging, lock-ins, and even cartel practices that excluded others from the market. You're just not consistent, Mike. -- BIG IS EVEN WORSE. Corporations are inherently bad. -- As that's the FIRST fact of modern economics, you must have skipped class that day.

And as fanboy-trolls can't get past "out_of_the_blue supports copyright therefore he's totally for greedy corporations and shakedown rackets with never a cent going to the artists", then I point out that Mike supports copyright TOO, and yet you don't pin the same assocations to him. Try to grasp some portion of nuances, kids.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Mar 2013 @ 2:57pm

Not surprised at all. Also I am betting they'll pay using the arist's money somehow.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Mar 2013 @ 2:58pm

Re: Hmm, and yet you're indifferent to Google and Microsoft
You are still an ignorant lout and full of shit.
I cite every one of your comments under the moniker out_of_the_blue as evidence to support this claim.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Mar 2013 @ 3:03pm

Re: Hmm, and yet you're indifferent to Google and Microsoft
what the heck are google and microsquishy colluding together on?

What makes you think there wouldn't be a similar (probably much larger font) article if and when there is any news that google or microsoft is convicted of price fixing or other illegal activity? Your delusions are showing.
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jupiterkansas (profile), 22 Mar 2013 @ 3:18pm

Guess they should have paid a little more in bribes.
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Trails (profile), 22 Mar 2013 @ 3:24pm

Re: Hmm, and yet you're indifferent to Google and Microsoft
Yup, they're totally colluding. When Balmer said "I'm going to f#$%ing kill Google" what he really meant is "We should raise our prices based on the number of chairs I throw, minus the radius of my pit stains at the next Microsoft conference". Sing the truth, sister!
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Mar 2013 @ 7:17pm

Re: Hmm, and yet you're indifferent to Google and Microsoft
And yet you're indifferent to the RIAA.

That says a lot more.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 22 Mar 2013 @ 7:42pm

Performance rights organisations are a joke - well, surprise, surprise. What more could you expect out of a group that demands payment for the privilege of playing music to horses?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
out_of_the_blue, 22 Mar 2013 @ 8:04pm

Hmmm, and i'm also indifferent to the truth
I find it amazing how completely wrong I can be at times. Isn't it good to be me? Time to spam misleading comments everywhere and laugh at the responses!

Take a loopy tour of http://techdirt.com/! You always find the same useless commenters.
13:32:39[y-kgb-e]
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Pixelation, 22 Mar 2013 @ 11:29pm

Perfect quote
At first, I thought it was Brazil the movie.

"Don't fight it son. Confess quickly! If you hold out too long you could jeopardize your credit rating. "
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Ophelia Millais (profile), 23 Mar 2013 @ 4:47am

Re: Hmm, and yet you're indifferent to Google and Microsoft
And that, folks, is classic ad hominem tu quoque, the "oh yeah, well you're a hypocrite" non-argument.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Ninja (profile), 23 Mar 2013 @ 5:59am

I happen to have access to a pretty well known musician in Brazil so I managed to have some pretty amazing conversations about this and had the opportunity to understand what THE ARTISTS think about it (via his connections and so on). The fact is that aside of a few examples (mainly the famous ones) most artists HATE ECAD and think the current copyright system is insane. To my surprise they think exactly like me: there should be some sort of protection but it needs to be narrow and sensible. Suing teens for downloading is not something they approve.

The most common worry is not how money is being lost to eventual downloads but how the insanely easy availability is simply alienating people. I explain: they stop caring who wrote or composed the song, they barely take notice of who is actually performing. The worst problem today is attribution of who did what in a performance. I told him about private "trackers" and how they form communities around a determined subject be it animation, movies, tv shows and he found it interesting.

You see, when the MAFIAA and associated morons say they care about the artists, creators we should actually interpret they care about their artists, their creators and even then they care only for those that generate profit for THEM (the MAFIAA structure itself).

In any case, I'm doing my part in raising as much awareness as possible.

Now a bit of curiosity in the case: the case was brought by an association of cable tv operators due to the abusive value ECAD was demanding. I found this ironically amusing ;)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Ninja (profile), 23 Mar 2013 @ 8:14am

Re: Re: Hmm, and yet you're indifferent to Google and Microsoft
The dude went crazy or something. Or he's undergoing some mental seizure. We should just ignore his comments specially those devoid of any substance. He has far too much audience. And he likes it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 28 Mar 2013 @ 5:56am

Ah Brazil...

This country isn't a can of worms. It is a can of SHIT.

You guys at techdirt don't know half of the crap that happens here...
[ link to this | view in thread ]