28. 01. 2011

OFPS CHARGED FOR MOBILE RINGING

Belgrade, January 28, 2011 (Blic) - The owner of hairdressing salon in Belgrade has to pay fee of 11.000 RSD for "the use of phonograms" because of the ringing tone on mobile of the employee in the salon.

Namely, the controller of the Organization of Phonogram Producers of Serbia (OFPS) estimated that a music track as a ringtone was subjected to protection of copyright and related rights.

While lawyers argued that the signal on the mobile phone could not be regarded as phonogram, at the Intellectual Property Office say that the tariff includes "any device that play music".

Lawyer Srdjan Stojkovic said that the "mobile phone signal, which informs us that we are being called, by no means cannot be considered as a reproduction of phonogram. This means that every fourth beat, which represents a ringtone on mobile phone, could be subject to this tariff. How far should this go?"

Vladimir Maric, assistant director of the Intellectual Property Office, said that music reproduction from any device could be brought under the tariff, but he didn't want to comment this particular case.

Unofficially, this case is being observed as a way to still charge those who have taken out all music devices from their shops in order to cut down costs.