EU Songwriters Accuse Broadcasters of Anti-competitive

Songwriters and composers represented by the European Composer and Songwriter Alliance (ECSA), filed a formal complaint to the European Commission’s competition department accusing broadcasters, including the BBC, BskyB and Mediaset, of committed anti-competitive practices. The ECSA alleged that broadcasters frequently forced composers and songwriters to assign the copyrights of their music to a publishing company owned by the production company or broadcaster as a pre-condition prior to being given a commission.  ECSA claimed that the wide practice of “coercive commission” is against EU competition rules.  Journalists and other creators have been experiencing similar problem to what is claimed to be “coercive commission” or “unfair practice” in which they are often imposed by publishers or the commissioned party to assign all their copyrights and moral right for an one-off payment for unlimited uses of their work in all publications and to transfer such rights to the third party.  (Read more)