A LETTER FROM A CONCERNED HOTEL OWNER.
All bars/restaurants/hotels to be charged SR9000 for playing
local artists music? If these establishments do not play local artists music
they do not have to pay. How this will be monitored is unclear. There was also
no explanation letter to these establishments; just an invoice.
 |
| Random invoice from SACS with no explanation |
Some consider music as the ‘heartbeat of life’, and yet
because of the popularity of mainstream music, most people are unfortunately
completely oblivious to the local music being produced within our shores. There are so many benefits that local music
events bring to our country and our musicians.
If we are supportive of our musical environment, music has a chance to
grow and expand. Musicians and artists are a healthy part of our local economy.
When we support them, we are supporting a countless number of business owners
and employees.
Which brings me to my point… I take exception to receiving an invoice in the
post from a Society I knew nothing much of previously for something that ‘may
or may not’ have been done. Earlier this
month, my elderly parents had quite a shock, when opening an item of post.
Enclosed was an invoice for SCR9,000 being ‘Royalty payment to SACS for the
year 2015’.
The first question after having a small heart attack at
receiving an invoice for such a large amount, was ‘what the heck is this for’?,
who on earth is SACS and why are they sending us an invoice for ‘Royalty
Payments’ – we don’t even know where to find them or who they are. To add
frustration to the insult of receiving this invoice, is that there is no
explanation – nothing to say as to what we are due to pay this Royalty Payment
for… what we have done to quantify us paying such a large amount to SACS, and
what these funds are to be utilised for.
SACS is an acronym for Seychelles Artists and Composers
Society, so one would think that perhaps we have used someone’s music or some
such without going through the necessary channels… Attached to the invoice are
copies from the Government Gazette – eight pages detailing the existence of
copyright laws in Seychelles - all well
and good, but what are we paying SCR9,000 for?
First action would be to contact the telephone number on the
invoice, which proved to be useless as ‘this number is not available at
present’, the next would be to send them an email asking for an explanation,
this too was useless as the email came back unsent – ‘The email address you
entered couldn't be found.’ So Super-Sleuth me began to investigate further. I
made some telephone calls to friends and associates, all of whom knew nothing.
A few days later calls started coming back, many other hotels and restaurants
have received the same invoice with only the name on the invoice (and invoice
number) being changed.
The ‘Hotel Association’ was contacted and the response from
them was as such
‘Apparently, SACS sends out these invoices to all
establishments which may play copyrighted music for their guests (in their
restaurants / bars or rooms etc)
If you do not play any music for your guests, you are to
email them on the address stated on the invoice and advise them so, and they
will take it from there.’
Well yeah! Well and good… their email address ‘cannot be
found’…
So now the question is posed: Does this mean I can send out
invoices to all and sundry just because they ‘may’ have utilized my services,
so I can send you, dear reader, an invoice for reading this blog because I now
put a © ‘copyright’ on it… so I can now reap in SCR9,000 from each of you… good
scam! Now YOU have to prove that YOU have not read my blog or you must pay my
invoice!
To all those local artists out there producing music… do you
not wish for your music to be played and promoted? Because my thought on this
is as such… the international market is HUGE.. Far greater than the local one…
If I have a restaurant or a hotel or a guest house - whatever and there are
tourists visiting my establishment and I play your music, in the background –
surely I’ve bought your music, and I must enjoy it enough to play it for my
guests, who more than likely will enjoy it too, and ask me who this artist is…
and I can proudly say… ‘its one of our own’… more than likely that tourist who
has been having a wonderful time in our beautiful islands will want to purchase
your music, as a remembrance of their time here. They go home and play it for
friends and family or at their office, and hey! What do know… you’re getting
international exposure that one song being played in a little establishment is
now selling 500+ copies for you…
Oh no! Wait hold on… this is not going to happen!
WHY?
Well because of SACS action of invoicing all and sundry for
‘Royalties’ regardless of if royalties are actually due, you will not get the
exposure, as establishments are too afraid to play your music as there is nice
hefty bill of SCR9,000 at the end of each year ‘just-in-case’ we have infringed
on copyright, and this just simply as we may or may not have played your music
that may or may not be copyrighted.
SACS… if you want to invoice someone for something…
1.Ensure that they should be billed for what you are billing
them for
In the case of bootlegging, well this has become part of
life, many would rather not pay for what they could get for free, until a way
is found that makes it impossible to copy music without paying for it, this
will continue to happen, but sending out bulk invoices is a case of ‘cutting
off your nose in spite of your face’, because those who should be supporting
you, are too afraid to. Why are you penalizing the folks who are in the best
position to help you?
