Music licence battle goes on

For as long as I can remember, there has been a battle royal between the main copyright agencies and the licensed trade over the level of fees which they charge.

The Performing Right Society (PRS) has in recent years led a charm offensive, taking prominent advertising and supporting trade events in a bid to show licensees the acceptable face of the licensing scheme. But at the end of the day, it is in business to ensure that royalties go back to the composers and arrangers of music by way of licence fees.

This is a copyright scheme, based on a tariff of charges. When you move into a pub, you may be asked to fill in a form giving details of the types and style of music played there, including what equipment you have. This forms the basis of an assessment and an annual licence fee, which you are required to pay to the society.

As it is a tariff, the rates can be changed. And the PRS is seeking a huge uplift in the overall rates charged to pubs for the music they make available to their customers.

There is an avenue of appeal for the licensed trade, and that is to the Copyright Tribunal. This is headed by a senior legal figure, usually a judge, who listens to the arguments about the level of music, its relevance and

usefulness to the businesses concerned. The most recent high-profile appeal was about the airline industry and that went on for months.

So it is perhaps hardly surprising that the battle between the licensed trade and the PRS over its proposed major fee increase should be taking so long to resolve. As the trade has been paying the increased rates for nearly three years, any judgment in its favour could result in a major refund to licensees.

There is a precedent for this: some time ago the club trade managed to reverse an increase in tariff and received healthy rebates from the PRS as a result. But the pub trade is far larger and the pay-back could run into millions, if the judge thinks that the increase was exorbitant.

I know from my postbag that the licensed trade resents the level of fees charged in copyright matters tremendously. They see it as paying something for nothing. But in recent years, with the huge debate over Sky, it has become more widely recognised that copyright is a major issue that will not go away.