Collecting society Sabam claims of Belgian internet providers a fee of 3.4 percent per subscription. The isps and the minister for Enterprise to have the sending of invoices by Sabam strongly condemned.
Sabam sends the invoices to internet service providers because they offer the possibility of copyright-protected works to download and share. The organization calls this a ‘communication to the public’ of works which are copyrighted. In the Belgian copyright act of 1994 states that authors are compensated for any ‘public communication’ of content. Sabam send ten isps, therefore, a letter with the request to 3.4 percent of the internetabonnementsprijs to pay, which, according to the organisation amounts to one euro per subscriber per month.
The advocate stresses that such license is in no way a legalization of all the internet happens’ means. “The license is provided only to the communication to the public to legalize, and is independent of all other activities, such as free or for a fee, upload, download, or stream.” There would have been more than a year of negotiations about the tariff plan. Sabam hopes that the providers of the licensing fees not to pass on to the customers.
The spokesperson of Belgacom responds towards The Standard wroth about the sending of the invoices: “The plan is based on their interpretation of the law, but that is not legally substantiated.” Also, the spokesman of Vincent Van Quickenborne, the Belgian Minister of Enterprise and Simplification, condemns the action. “The minister has the control services of the FPS Economy are asked to verify that this is in conflict with the copyright act.”
Sabam expects that virtually all of the isps invoices to pay, but Isabelle de Vinck, spokeswoman of the Belgian Internet Service Providers’ Association, thinks otherwise. “Rather the reverse. This is an example of how not to do it. We are opposed in principle to a levy on the internet, because this is in fact about”, she says to Tweakers.net. She points out that there are already levies for discs, usb sticks, mp3 players and external hard drives in Belgium. “Consumers are going to pay double. Isps are not happy about it, not now they work hard on the creation of legal projects.” So, Belgacom will be collaborating with the streaming service Deezer.