KTV Clubs Asked to Pay Copyright Usage Fees

Source: China Daily

KTV clubs in China will pay at most 1 per cent of their total income in the near future to copyright owners of the music videos they use, a senior official with the National Copyright Administration said on Thursday.

The charge was initially fixed at 0.5 per cent of the yearly incomes of KTV clubs and still needs approval from the administration, Wang Ziqiang, spokesman for the administration, told a press conference.

Supervised by the administration, the Music Copyright Society of China and the China Audio-Video Collective Management Association, representing the music and music video copyright owners, will collect the copyright usage fees.

"Public hearing is not a must for the copyright fee charge as the fee is not collected by government but by copyright owners," said Wang, director of the administration's copyright department.

The administration and the two copyright associations will continue to hear opinions from the music video copyright owners, KTV club operators and the public before fixing the final standard, according to Wang.

There are more than 100,000 KTV clubs on the Chinese mainland now, sources said.

"The current standard was a maximum figure for copyright fee collection. Detailed regulation will be drafted in the future," he said.

It is expected that KTV clubs in developed and developing regions will have different fee-collection standards.

The administration urged the KTV club operators not to increase prices after paying fees to music and music video copyright owners.

"Consumers should not pay more after the copyright fee is collected," he said.

Wang expressed his hopes that responsible government departments such as the price supervision authorities will pay close attention to the prices of KTV clubs after the copyright fees are adopted.

If the KTV clubs refused to pay, the music and music video copyright owners, as well as two associations representing them, will sue the clubs, Wang said.

Early this year, the Music Copyright Society of China filed suit against a KTV club in South China's Shenzhen after the club used 20 musical works to earn money but refused to pay copyright fees.

The society is seeking a compensation of 200,000 yuan (US$25,000). No judgment has been made yet.

Last year, two intermediate people's courts in Shanghai ruled that three well-known KTV clubs had to pay copyright fees of 1,000 yuan (US$120) per music video.

The China Audio & Video Association began to collect copyright fees for the music used in KTV clubs.

Editor: Jessie Hwang