Belgian collecting society asks ISPs to compensate copyrights online

After our previous reports on British Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that received letters with requests to block file-sharing sites, now the Belgian collecting society SABAM calls upon Belgian ISP's to get actively involved to protect copyrights. However this time, the ISP’s have not been requested to block access to file sharing sites, but to pay a fee to SABAM, because they make copyright protected works available online. Each provider will receive an invoice for "communication to the public" of copyright protected works and SABAM wishes to collect these invoices on behalf of copyright holders.

SABAM’s claim is based on the Belgian copyright act, where authors are compensated for any "public communication" of their copyright protected work. According to SABAM, ISPs make copyright protected works publicly available online through their network and therefore this falls within the scope of “public communication”. SABAM demands a compensation of 3,4 percent of the internet subscription price. This means ISPs would have to pay SABAM about 1 euro per subscriber.

SABAM emphasized this fee by no means "legalizes everything that happens on the internet" and "the license is only intended to legalize the communication to the public of the providers and does not contain other activities, such as uploading, downloading or streaming."

The providers are unwilling to agree to SABAM's request and the Belgian federal Minister of Economic affairs also criticizes SABAM’s demands. The ISPs say they only act as a conduit and can not be compared with radio stations and cable companies, which are able to decide and influence the content the subscriber can watch or listen to. Unlike the role of the radio stations and cable companies, the ISPs claim they do not have an active or influential role. SABAM’ s director Christophe Depreter declared he prefers to negotiate with the ISPs, but that he is also willing to go to court in case the negotiations fail.

References: SABAM, Standaard.be, Webwereld