SUISA

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Cooperative of authors and publishers of music
(SUISA)
Suisa Logo.svg
purpose Management of copyrights
Chair: Xavier Dayer
Establishment date: 1923 (as mechanic license)
Seat : Zurich SwitzerlandSwitzerlandSwitzerland 
Website: www.suisa.ch

The Swiss Cooperative of the Authors and Publishers of Music (SUISA) represents the rights of use from the copyright of composers, lyricists and publishers of musical works. The name is the abbreviation of the French Suis se A uteurs.

SUISA emerged in 1941 from GEFA (Society for Performing Rights), which was founded in 1924. It merged in 1980 with the Mechan license (Swiss Society for Mechanical Copyright) founded in 1923. Over 30,000 composers, lyricists and music publishers from Switzerland and Liechtenstein are now organized in SUISA. Through contracts with foreign partner companies, the company represents around two million musicians in Switzerland.

working area

The company represents the copyrights of its members and ensures that they are adequately compensated for the use of their works. SUISA only takes care of the so-called “minor rights”, which, among other things, affect musical works in film and television, non-theatrical music and concert versions of theatrical works. The rights to operas and musicals are exercised by the partner organization Société Suisse des Auteurs (SSA).

Any composer, lyricist or music publisher can become a member. With a management agreement, the organization is authorized to license the use of works and to charge fees for this on behalf of the author.

The exercise of copyrights also includes remuneration for private copying of music, which has been charged on blank media since 1993. Until August 31, 2007, this included blank cassettes, CDs and DVDs . As early as January 24, 2006, a copyright remuneration for digital storage media in MP3 players and hard disk recorders was announced, which was originally supposed to come into force on March 1, 2006. After lengthy delays due to legal disputes, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court finally granted SUISA's application and approved the introduction of the fees on September 1, 2007. The tariffs are based on periodically collected usage data; they are determined in negotiations with the industry associations (SWICO and DUN). The current tariffs also include deductions for copying unprotected music and other data as well as a deduction for DRMS-protected works.

The administrative costs amount to 11.95 percent of the fees, 10 percent are deducted in the area of ​​remuneration for blank media. SUISA is subject to the supervision of the Institute for Intellectual Property .

criticism

General

As a member assigns your copyrights to SUISA, you have to pay SUISA fees for the performance of your own works. For example, an organizer pays SUISA fees for a band's concert, even if they only play their own compositions. These fees are then reimbursed after deducting the administration costs of the band.

In addition, as a member you are no longer allowed to offer your own works for free on the Internet (with the exception of your own website). If you want to use other platforms, their operators must obtain the license from SUISA and pay the compensation. It is no longer possible for SUISA members to publish compositions under the Creative Commons license.

From the consumer's point of view

The SUISA flat-rate levies are levied on storage media in accordance with the GT4a – GT4d tariffs that can save and reproduce works protected by copyright. For example, these are: CDs, DVDs, microchips or hard disks in audio and audiovisual recording devices. This also applies to media that are used exclusively for copying private photo and film material. With high-resolution digital photo cameras and HTDV cameras in the private consumer market, the storage requirements for hard disks for intermediate storage, DVDs and Blu-ray discs for the playback of this exclusively private media data have grown significantly. The storage media affected by the levies represent a product that can be used for two different purposes. Whether or not copyrighted works are saved is only determined by the buyer after the purchase (dual use). The SUISA fees are passed on to the media carriers regardless of their final use. Because it is owed in advance, it is also collected if the acquired storage medium is used exclusively for storing content that is not protected by copyright. Therefore, depending on the given purpose, these taxes would constitute an unlawful compulsory tax. In particular, private photo and film data would be extremely tax burdened due to their storage intensity. This also applies to open source software, company data and other private data. This often leads to consumer displeasure.

Copyright compensation on MP3 players

The copyright remuneration for MP3 players and hard disk recorders that was newly introduced in Switzerland on September 1, 2007, caused SUISA a lot of criticism, be it from the media, SWICO or the Swiss Foundation for Consumer Protection.

The copyright remuneration has been criticized in part as questionable, since it represents a multiple burden for consumers who already pay a copyright fee when legally purchasing music or films. There are also very different tariffs for different technologies such as flash memory or hard drives . The coupling of the fee to the size of the storage facility and the rapid technological development resulted in horrific fees. On April 14, 2008, SUISA responded by adjusting the remuneration for flash memories over 4 GB, thereby reducing the remuneration for certain devices by up to 75 percent. The consumer protection organizations welcomed this step, but demanded a review of all taxes based on current figures.

The company has been charging blank media compensation since 1993 to compensate authors for private copying of music. However, while the majority of tape cassettes and CDs were actually passed on to friends or obtained from friends, the copies on MP3 players are usually still intended for personal use. So you not only pay for the audio CD (or the legal download from the Internet), but also the privilege of listening to the music on the go. In addition, it is not taken into account that a download from the Internet can take place directly on the MP3 player and thus the existence of a private copy would not exist at all. The collecting societies took the view that the proportion of paid downloads from the Internet should be disregarded. However, the arbitration commission enforced that deductions had to be made on the proposed fees based on the results of a GfS study. However, these deductions only take into account the proportion of paid music downloads at the time of the study (2005) and not the expected rapid development. In addition, the fees do not take into account the fact that a considerable scene of independent Internet labels has developed in recent years that offer their publications under the Creative Common License and can therefore be copied as often as required.

Many consumers see the fee as an upheaval of alleged losses due to non-illegal downloads in Switzerland to all MP3 users, and therefore many honest buyers feel offended because they now see themselves as part of a collective punishment.

SUISA Songwriting Camp

The song Sister , which won the German preliminary round for the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest , was created in a SUISA songwriting camp .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Board of Directors. SUISA website, accessed on March 4, 2020
  2. ^ Moritz Lichtenegger: collecting societies, ban on cartels and new media. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2014 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  3. ↑ SUISA celebrates 25,000 members. SUISA press release of April 3, 2008, accessed on January 28, 2013
  4. ↑ Copyright compensation from March 1, 2006 also on digital storage media in mp3 players and hard disk recorders. SUISA press release of January 24, 2006, accessed on March 4, 2020
  5. ↑ Questions & Answers: General information on music copyright. SUISA website
  6. ↑ Questions & Answers: Burning Internet, MP3, CDs. SUISA website
  7. ^ Creative Commons. SUISA website
  8. ↑ a b Common Tariff 4d 2011–2013 ( Memento from July 31, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), wording of GT 4d, valid from September 1, 2007 (PDF; 4 kB), accessed on March 4, 2020
  9. ↑ Christian Bütikofer: When music sounds, the tills ring. In: Tages-Anzeiger . September 18, 2006, archived on the author's website, accessed March 4, 2020
  10. ↑ New fee: MP3 players will soon be massively more expensive. In: Kassensturz from SF DRS . August 28, 2007, accessed March 4, 2020
  11. ↑ There is a risk of surcharge on video recorders and MP3 players. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . July 11, 2007, accessed March 4, 2020
  12. ↑ SWICO calls for: further tariff adjustments, no technology discrimination In: press portal. April 16, 2008, SWICO press release of April 14, 2008, accessed on March 4, 2020
  13. ↑ SUISA is lowering copyright royalties on music flash storage by up to 75 percent ( memento of February 19, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ). SUISA press release of April 14, 2008, accessed on March 4, 2020
  14. ↑ Success for the consumer organizations: Suisa lowers tariffs. Media release of the Foundation for Consumer Protection of April 14, 2008, accessed on March 4, 2020
  15. ↑ a b Decision of March 26, 2010 regarding the Common Tariff 3a (GT 3a) radio and sound carriers. Notification from the Federal Arbitration Commission for the Exploitation of Copyrights and Related Rights (PDF; 8.8 MB), accessed on March 4, 2020
  16. ↑ German preliminary decision «Sister» | Eurovision Song Contest 2019 | Interview on YouTube , February 22, 2019, accessed on March 4, 2020.