Supreme Court passes on ringtone royalties
p2pnet news view | Mobiles:- The Supreme Court of Canada says it isn’t going to allow an appeal by BCE Inc (aka Bell Canada), Telus and the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association disputing royalties they’re supposed to pay when they sell ringtones to users.
In 2006, says the CBC, the Copyright Board of Canada ruled SOCAN (Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada ) was entitled to ringtone royalties for 2003-05.
“The price was set at six per cent of the price of the ringtone or a minimum of six cents a ringtone for those downloaded in 2004 and 2005,” says the story, going on:
“At issue in the case was whether the sale of a ringtone from a carrier to a customer was technically a public communication subject to a separate levy, or a private transaction that wasn’t a communication per se, since the downloading of a ringtone was no guarantee the ringtone would be played.
“The Copyright Board and Federal Court had both sided with the copyright holders, arguing the transmission of ringtones were public communication.”
The CWTA, Bell and Telus, “had tried to appeal on a technical issue – but the Supreme Court decided not to hear the appeal,” says cellular-news, adding:
“As is usual in these situations, the court does not explain its reasoning.”
SOCAN also believes hair-dressers and dentists should be paying royalties.
CBC – Supreme Court refuses to hear appeal over ringtone tariff, September 18, 2008
cellular-news – Supreme Court Upholds Canadian Ringtone Royalty Payments, September 19, 2008
hair-dressers – SOCAN threatens p2pnet. Again, August 2, 2007
dentists – Just say Ahhhhhh, July 6, 2004
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September 19th, 2008 at 10:16 am
Pointing out a potential silver lining to this…high cost royalties may eventually cause ringtones to be so expensive that they will stop being used.
September 19th, 2008 at 10:53 am
People forgot how to make their own ringtones, because this ringtone business is a rip-off.
Most can cut them from mp3 files. Some can even create their own, with a MIDI synthesizer.