General Society of Authors and Publishers

Palacio Longoria (Madrid), headquarters of the SGAE.

The Sociedad General de Autores y Editores (SGAE) is a Spanish private society legally recognized as collective management, dedicated to managing the copyright of its partners, including all kinds of artists and entrepreneurs in the business of culture. It is an organization that manages the collection and distribution of copyright and at the same time looks after the interests of publishers.

Its headquarters are located in the Palacio Longoria, in Madrid.

Traditionally little known beyond the sector in which it performs its functions, it has achieved wide notoriety in recent years, as a result of the conflict that has confronted the electronics industry over the application of the so-called &# 34;compensatory fee for private copying", introduced more than 20 years ago. The manufacturers suggested in their day the introduction of a generic fee that would compensate the authors for the copies made by the users with the new cassette and video recorders that they proposed to introduce to the market, but when the collecting societies requested its extension to the new formats, they opposed it. Opposition to the canon led to the creation of associations such as the Todos contra el canon platform, whose activity has significantly damaged the entity's public image.

On July 1, 2011, the recently re-elected president Teddy Bautista and eight executives were arrested by order of the National Court, charging them with crimes of misappropriation, falsification of documents and diversion of funds, for an approximate amount of 400 million euros. Teddy Bautista was its president from 1995 until July 12, 2011, when he submitted his resignation due to the crimes with which he was charged. On May 8, 2012, Antón Reixa was elected the new president of the SGAE, and on July 25, 2013 he was replaced by José Luis Acosta Salmerón, after Reixa's dismissal by the Board of Directors. On April 20, 2016, after the resignation of José Luis Acosta, the new president of the SGAE is elected the composer and musician José Miguel Fernández Sastrón. The musician José Ángel Hevia presides over the organization from November 12, 2018 until February 27, 2019, date on which he is dismissed when a motion of censure is successful. He is replaced in office by the Madrid composer and soprano Pilar Jurado. On May 30, 2019, the SGAE is temporarily expelled (one year) by the world rights organization author. This decision was taken in Tokyo by the General Assembly of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) and is the result of the disciplinary process opened in December 2018. This process was opened after several complaints about the management of the SGAE. These complaints pointed to the discriminatory treatment of rights holders and the application of distribution procedures in an unequal manner.

Origins

At the end of the 19th century, the music business in Spain was made up of three groups: the theaters and halls in which the works were performed, the authors of the works and the intermediaries between them, among which Florencio Fiscowich stood out. Intermediaries frequently abused their dominant position through exclusive contracts with theaters and tied authors with advances on future works. To deal with this situation, the writers Sinesio Delgado, Carlos Arniches, the Álvarez Quintero brothers, the librettist Federico Romero Sarachaga and the composers Ruperto Chapí, Rafael Calleja Gómez and Tomás Barrera Saavedra, among others, created on June 16, 1899 the Society of Authors. Its first president was the sculptor, writer, playwright and theater director Federico Oliver Crespo.

In 1941, the SGAE (General Society of Authors of Spain) was founded, which now exclusively manages all copyrights on performing arts. In 1995 the SGAE was refounded as the General Society of Authors and Publishers. Thus giving welcome within the society to the editors.

Currently, the society represents more than 100,000 members and manages a repertoire of more than five million registered works. To be a member of the entity, you must have a publicly exploited work in any medium. Its members include musicians, composers, playwrights, lyricists, arrangers, film, television and radio scriptwriters, soundtrack authors, film directors, audiovisual producers, etc. In addition, the company has reciprocity agreements with other similar entities established in the rest of the world, whereby they exploit the SGAE repertoire in their territories in exchange for the company managing theirs in Spain.^{[citation required]}

Functions

Among its functions are issuing licenses for the repertoire of the authors grouped in the SGAE for its exploitation in any type of business: recording on discs, on videographic or multimedia support (CD-ROM, DVD, Blu-Ray), its use in digital networks such as the Internet or mobile telephony and its subsequent commercialization, the public communication of said contents by radio stations, television channels, cable operators, the exploitation in theaters, nightclubs, film exhibition venues, hospitality or of any other type open to the public, etc.

The company controls these markets to defend the rights of its members, ensuring that the exploitation of the SGAE repertoire is licensed and the corresponding copyrights are paid, it manages authorization requests for the synchronization of pre-existing musical works in productions media, manages the so-called "equitable remuneration" for video rentals, monitors compliance with the agreements signed with distributors of audiovisual recording media, with broadcasters, etc. Its legal department advises members and defends their rights, denouncing the activity of renting record media that it considers illegal, preparing the corresponding documentation for lawsuits through the courts, as well as investigating activities considered illegal related to the interests of the authors. especially the illegal use of the SGAE repertoire (what the entity defines as "anti-piracy").

It should be noted that the SGAE is not the only association of authors and publishers in Spain, nor is it authorized by 100% of copyright owners to manage use or collect on their behalf; in fact, the SGAE does not own the copyright and must act on behalf of its associates; The SGAE is one of the main groups against «music piracy» in Spain, especially against the top manta. The SGAE is also positioned against downloads through P2P networks. Likewise, it calls for a drop in taxes on records, from 16% (currently 21%) to 4% VAT.

Equity and corporate network

Since the late 1980s, the SGAE began to obtain income through the so-called compensatory fee for audio and video tapes, for stereos and televisions in public places; The digitization of musical and audiovisual supports led to the extension of the canon to new formats (CD/DVD, portable memories, etc.)^{[citation required]}. Both parallel phenomena are those that have caused an increase in SGAE income in recent years.

In 2007, and analyzing the Public Report of the Company, the SGAE obtained a small benefit thanks to its high financial income due to the abundant liquidity that it regularly enjoys. Instead, it had operating losses as the difference between the income earned and its current expenses.

In 2008, on the other hand, the SGAE declared losses in its income statements despite maintaining a very comfortable liquidity situation. Also in 2008, multiple real estate investments began to appear on its balance sheet. The complex network of unconsolidated companies and foundations associated with the group makes it difficult to have a clear vision of its economic situation.

Thus, the Fundación Autor (SGAE group) multiplied its assets by 110 in three years, which were 0.5 million euros in 2003; in 2006 they reached 55.6 million euros.

In 2005 the rights management company, which had an annual income of 300 million, transferred 16 million to the Fundación Autor. According to the newspaper El Economista, the company has committed 320 million euros in reconstructions and property purchases.

The SGAE owns one hundred percent of SDAE, before a division of SGAE and today a limited company that owes 99 percent of its turnover to the SGAE (according to SDAE's own annual accounts filed with the commercial registry), which comes to provide results of more than 7 million euros (as an example of the activity between 2000 and 2005)^{[citation required]}.

The SDAE company owns Portalatino, a music sales page, which in turn owns the exploitation rights of La Central Digital, the software platform for selling online content. The Digital Central provides services to the specialized music websites Latinergy, Museekflazz and Egrem.

Criticism and controversy

P2P and piracy

The SGAE has been accused by its critics of promoting and financing advertising campaigns that associate file sharing through P2P programs and non-profit copying of original works with crime. The society has replied that it does nothing more than what it was created for: defend the rights of its members, demanding the application of the law, which defines P2P as exploitation of the authors' repertoire in the form of public communication, to which is essential the mandatory license.

In June 2004, in collaboration with Vale Music, the SGAE released a record made up of 14 songs by new bands called No a la Piracy. A great controversy was created around this album because on its back cover there was a message against piracy and the top manta, which several organizations considered to have a clear xenophobic character. Due to pressure and complaints from various NGOs (such as SOS Racismo) and consumer associations (such as FACUA, the Federation of Consumers in Action), the SGAE tried to withdraw the record from the market and dissociate itself from it, while Vale Music acknowledged that the contents that appeared on the back cover were "inappropriate."

Private copy fee

The most controversial function of the SGAE is the collection of a fee for the copy "for the private use of the copyist" of a musical or audiovisual work already disclosed, also extended to all supports used to store personal data, the collection of which is distributed among partners. This canon has been widely contested for allegedly violating the presumption of innocence, giving rise to different campaigns, especially on the internet, strong criticism of the Spanish Pirate Party and also various protests in the street, including the assault on its headquarters in Madrid.

Because of this same canon, the SGAE has been the object of two Google bombs, with the word "Thieves" and with the expression "We Always Earn Some Euros", until the modification of the robots. txt from the SGAE page if we searched for "thieves" in Google, the SGAE would appear in one of the first results. Teddy Bautista has accused Google of "fascism" for this fact. The same was true for certain searches on other search engines.

On October 21, 2010, the court of the European Union declared illegal the application of the digital fee for companies and professionals in Spain, excluding consumers and clarifying that as long as it is for purposes other than private copying. Despite this, the management companies, including the SGAE, refuse to return the canon money, arguing that the sentence is not retroactive.

Funding cast

His detractors consider that since the SGAE manages all copyrights and distributes them according to its own criteria, this is detrimental to authors who do not belong to the SGAE, and also its low-ranking members. It has been denounced that in some cases the SGAE has claimed a part of the income as "copyrights" in cases in which those shows do not violate them nor are those rights owned by members of the SGAE.

It is a fact that the SGAE does not discriminate when it comes to charging compensation for the use of artistic material belonging to its copyright management bag or not; but it does do so when distributing the proceeds only among its partners and according to its own scales.

The distribution criteria are included in the company's bylaws and this is regularly verified by external auditors.

Legal actions in defense of your honor

The SGAE has sued various websites in defense of its honour, which has led to campaigns by Internet users against the entity. The Association of Internet users was sentenced to pay compensation of 36,000 euros for hosting the site putasgae; the person in charge of Frikipedia was also denounced in 2006 for insults in a satirical definition that the site had about the SGAE. According to one of the people in charge of the SGAE, Pedro Farré, this initiative was not an isolated event, but any website that hosts defamatory content against the organization would be denounced, whether or not it was included by the person in charge of the page or portal in question.

Charity concert collections

The SGAE has been criticized on various occasions for collecting money from charity concerts.

In January 2006, the organization decided to return the 518 euros it had made pay, following a complaint, to the theater company Taller Cultural from Fuentepelayo (Segovia), a non-profit organization which is made up mostly of disabled children. Although the SGAE assured that the process was the result of an "error", some believe that the reversal was due to the complaint campaign that was raised in the previous months in various blogs and internet portals.

In April 2009, the SGAE threatened to prevent a benefit concert by David Bisbal, the proceeds of which were initially to go entirely to the treatment of a five-year-old boy suffering from Alexander syndrome, if he was not given the 10% of the collection. Finally, the organization paid €5,000 to the SGAE, but after the news appeared in various media, and given the negative response from public opinion, the management body returned the money collected in the form of a donation.

The SGAE defended itself by pointing out that not all providers of charitable acts waive charging and has stated on several occasions that it is not empowered to decide for its members whether or not they are willing to waive receiving the corresponding copyright, For example, at a charity concert. The Intellectual Property Law obliges it to extend the corresponding exploitation license to all events in which the repertoire of its members is used, except those of the State and those of a religious nature. For a charity or charity event to achieve a free license must notify the society in advance of the repertoire it plans to use, so that it obtains from its partners the express waiver of receiving the compensation provided by law.^{[citation required ]}

Collection for works owned by humanity

Incendiary statements by local politicians from Zalamea de la Serena (Badajoz) and Fuente Obejuna (Córdoba) according to which, the society would claim 24,000 and 30,000 euros respectively from each of those municipalities for popular performances of classical works of the Spanish theater The first representation used the adaptation by Francisco Brines, the second that of an author who is not a member of the SGAE.

Dramatic works enter the public domain seventy years after the author's death. However, it frequently happens, as in this case, that since they are written in unintelligible Spanish for the current public and have practically unrepresentable formats, it is necessary to resort to the work of an adapter, whose work is protected by law.

In 2010, the town of Santa Cruz de Campezo in Álava was demanded €8,000 for playing the brass bands at town festivals, melodies that are protected by copyright.

Other controversies

On February 8, 2008, the European Union opened a file with the SGAE to study whether its position in the market could violate antitrust laws in the sale of licenses to download music on the Internet. In July of the same year, the European Commission put an end to the monopoly of the SGAE by prohibiting it from being the only one to which Spanish lyricists and composers can entrust the management of their copyrights.

On March 13, the head of Alicante Commercial Court number one authorized the SGAE to charge for music at wedding banquets. The magistrate considered that weddings do not represent a strictly private act. The authorization is applicable to baptisms and communions. The owner of a local defendant insisted that some musical works are only played occasionally at weddings, that the SGAE does not have the rights to all the pieces because they also play classical music that is exempt. However, the magistrate considered that the SGAE cannot be required to prove that music is played in all celebrations to authorize it to always collect the fee.

In December, the SGAE sued another wedding hall in Seville, based on a four-minute video recorded without authorization of the couple and a report from other detectives who were not registered as such, therefore which was sanctioned by the Spanish Data Protection Agency.

In January 2010, the media echoed the SGAE's attempt to charge some small businesses, such as hairdressers or pastry shops, for having a radio broadcasting in their premises, alleging that " play music, even if said radio is used only to listen to the news"

Demands where the SGAE cannot charge for copyright

The digital canon considered illegal

The lawyer Verica Trstenjak of the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that the digital fee imposed in Spain by community regulations is perfectly legal, but its indiscriminate application could harm the rights of companies that use materials for purposes unrelated to the private copy. The procedure chosen to collect the fee was decided in its day by the representatives of the electronics industry. To facilitate the process, a smaller global charge was established to reach the agreed global amount, although the law in force exempts companies from paying the canon. The government is working to adjust the procedure to this sentence, but the immediate consequence will be that if the companies do not pay, to reach the same figure, individuals will have to pay a more expensive fee.

Music with free or less restrictive licenses

SGAE has a standard contract that does not contemplate the possibility of managing works under free or less restrictive licenses than conventional copyright, that is, compositions to which the owner grants the right to download, copy, and even modify, distribute and publicly broadcast their work. A judge agrees with a pub against the SGAE.

Investigation for alleged misappropriation and diversion of funds

On June 29, 2011, the news came to light that the National Court was investigating the SGAE for misappropriation of funds.

On July 1, 2011, one day after the elections of the new Board of Directors of the SGAE, the Civil Guard searched several headquarters of the Company as well as 17 private homes within the framework of the operation ' Saga' of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office and arrested the then president, Teddy Bautista, and eight other members of the SGAE, including José Neri (general director of SDAE), who are accused of misappropriation, falsification of documents and diversion of funds (some 400 million euros that they would have obtained thanks to the digital canon). These alleged crimes were committed by the Digital Society of Authors and Publishers (SDAE), which depends on the SGAE. The National Court also authorized the seizure and blocking of various accounts of those responsible for the SGAE.

The investigation is produced as a result of a November 2007 lawsuit prepared by the lawyer Ofelia Tejerina, for the Association of Internet users, which had the express support of the Association of Internet Users, the Spanish Association of Small and Medium-sized Information Technology and New Technologies Companies (APEMIT) and the Spanish Association of Hoteliers Victims of the Canon (VACHE).

Two days later, the Internet Users Association once again called for the resignation of the Minister of Culture, Ángeles González-Sinde for not having taken responsibility for "auditing and supervising the accounts" of the SGAE and be a "judge and party" in the process. For its part, the SGAE announced that it will take the appropriate legal measures if it is shown that the entity has suffered any harm from the SDAE.

Finally, on July 12, 2011, Bautista resigned as president of the SGAE.

At the end of 2012, José Ramón Julio Márquez Martínez, known in the artistic world as Ramoncín, was also indicted by the judge of the National Court Pablo Ruz in the case for the irregularities of the SGAE. Ramoncín had been a director of the SGAE, and for years one of the most prominent defenders of its collection policies.

Presidents

• Antonio Onetti (April 2020- ?)

Odeon Awards

Spanish awards instituted in 2019 by the Association for the Management of Intellectual Rights (AGEDI) in collaboration with Spanish Music Producers (PROMUSICAE), General Society of Authors and Publishers (SGAE), Author Foundation and Society of Artists of Spain (IEA).