25. 01. 2011

NO MUSIC IN COFFEE SHOPS

Belgrade, January 25, 2010 (Tanjug, RTV) - In 42 cities and municipalities in Serbia, the restaurants, hotels and partly retail, entrepreneurial and craft shops, tax payers of the fee for public reproduction of music, have turned their music devices off for all day as a form of protest against the high tariffs imposed by SOKOJ and the Organization of Phonograms Producers of Serbia (OFPS).

Turning off the music was a continuation of the action "Freezing music", organized in Belgrade, Novi Sad and other 34 towns in Serbia on December 22, 2010. More than 8.500 bars and hotels joined the action, which was regarded as the final warning appeal on state institutions and the Commission for Copyright and Related Rights, to ensure compliance with laws and bring order to the area of copyright and related rights.

The dispute with SOKOJ and OFPS began over the fact that, even 13 months after the amended Law on Copyright and Related Rights came into force, the article of the Law, stipulating that the tariff will be determined, among other things, in proportion to the tariffs of collective organizations of countries whose gross domestic product is approximate to the gross domestic product of Serbia, was not respected.

Fees in Serbia are higher than fees in the UK, whose residents make seven times bigger gross domestic product per year.