XN000022-1996-01-17 — Page 37

Reply:

(b)

(c)

Mr President,

(a)

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through what channels can the public find out which bodies may legally collect music royalties; and

whether consideration will be given to establishing a mechanism which will incorporate all royalties charged by the relevant bodies and which will collect such royalties from users of copyright music on a unified basis, thereby avoiding unnecessary confusion and disputes arising from the payment of royalties to different bodies?

At present, there are two bodies in Hong Kong which may collect royalties for public performance of music. One is the Phonographic Performance (South East Asia) Ltd. (PPSEAL), a subsidiary of the International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI), which collects royalties in respect of sound recordings. The other is the Composers and Authors Society of Hong Kong Limited (CASH) which collects copyright royalties in respect of the lyrics and music underlying the sound recordings. The separate collection of royalties for sound recordings and for music and lyrics is a common practice internationally.

Copyright is a private economic right that can be exercised by the copyright owners. The charging of royalties is a means to exercise such a right. The determination of copyright royalties is a commercial matter between the copyright holders and the copyright users, having regard to the supply and demand for the copyright works, the form and scale of usage, the established royalties charged by major foreign societies for similar rights, and other factors as considered appropriate. Government should not intervene.

The

However, to guard against possible abuse, under existing legislation. disputes over copyright royalties between copyright owners or collecting societies on the one hand and the copyright users for the public performance of music on the other may be referred to the Performing Right Tribunal (PRT) for arbitration. The PRT was established under the provisions of the UK 1956 Copyright Act as amended and extended to Hong Kong.