ANALYSIS
Dialogue & Transparency Needed
Among Copyright Stakeholders
Author: Michelle Osmanli, Executive Director, AmCham Macedonia
Most people don’t have any idea what a copyright collecting society is or does. And yet, in Macedonia, when
you stay in a hotel, you pay more in collecting society
fees than you do in taxes. You also pay the copyright
collecting society – albeit indirectly – when you purchase cable television, visit a shopping center, go to a
club, eat at a restaurant, and more.
Despite this lack of awareness, mention the word
“ZAMP” (the acronym of Macedonia’s virtual monopoly
collecting society) to average citizens or local artists,
and you’re likely to get an immediate, rather negative
reaction. ZAMP has a reputation among average citizens in Macedonia as the organization that comes calling at large family celebrations to demand cash payment
for music played there. In late 2013, the Copyright Law
was amended to specifically forbid this practice, but the
reputation remains today. Among local artists, ZAMP is
regularly accused of failing to represent their interests
and provide an adequate source of revenue for them.1
For the non-expert, copyright collecting societies can
be understood as bodies that are authorized to license
copyrighted works and collect fees (or royalties) on
behalf of their members. Without them, individual artists would need to collect payment directly for the use
of their work, which is why they’ve been around since
the 18th century.
Local companies have complained for years about the
level and structure of royalties they pay. Most recently,
several industry associations within the Economic
Chamber held a press conference in late 2015, calling
for reductions to current ZAMP royalties, including:
• 16 MKD (~2.6 euro cents) for each cable TV customer, per month;
1 For a full discussion of this, see Collective Management of
Music Copyrights in Macedonia: Climbing Up the Ladder in the Corner
of Europe (PDF Download Available at https://www.researchgate.
net/publication/233751881_Collective_Management_of_Music_
Copyrights_in_Macedonia_Climbing_Up_the_Ladder_in_the_
Corner_of_Europe) [accessed May 6, 2016].
22 Spring 2016 Issue 49
• The obligation of companies to pay music royalties
for space it rents to others;
• The obligation to pay music royalties by medical spa
facilities; and
• 10% of total event revenues generated by hotels
where copyrighted music is played.2
The company representatives emphasized that they
were not questioning whether royalties should be paid
for commercial use of copyrighted material, but that
current royalty levels were out of sync with their realistic economic value in the local context, lack logic and
transparency.
This recent series of events demonstrates how
little real dialogue there is between stakeholders
in today’s copyrights marketplace in Macedonia.
Laws are passed without consulting stakeholders,
copyright users and artists groups regularly
hold press conferences to air their concerns and
ZAMP rarely appears in public fora of any kind.
In late August 2015, without any public consultation
process whatsoever, the Ministry of Culture proposed
amendments to the Copyright Law to arbitrarily cap
royalties paid by radio and TV broadcasters to 18, 12
and 6 average Macedonian monthly salaries per year
(e.g., just 6.410 – 2.137 EUR for 2015). The amended
law also exempted taxi companies, public transportation companies, museums and mountain huts/shelters
and others from paying any royalties whatsoever. The
move appears to have been primarily motivated by a
desire to reduce royalties paid by public institutions,
however it also attempted to address long running concerns with the level of royalties paid by private companies in some sectors. As is virtually always the case,
Parliament promptly passed the proposed amendments.
2
Source - http://a1on.mk/wordpress/archives/556156