The diatribe between Sky and Siae continues. A thousand authors and artists, including 4 Oscar Awards, have signed a letter to support the copyright law.
A letter of complaint. A letter to affirm the importance of copyright, as it is still regulated in Italy. So there are a thousand signatories of the manifesto published today by Siae (Italian Society of Authors and Publishers) in support of copyright that puts the accent on the battle carried out by the pay TV of Murdoch: “For months – reads the letter – Sky has decided to use the creative content resulting from our work without paying any remuneration for their exploitation, as instead the law on copyright and fair compensation “.
“We have also learned – the letter continues – that this station is trying to use an investigation against the Siae, which has been pending for a year with the Antitrust Authority, to try to give some sort of legitimacy to its behavior contrary to copyright law”. The Antitrust Authority will in fact be called upon to rule on the alleged abuse of a dominant position by Siae. How long has Sky not honored the agreements with Siae? It all started 9 months ago, in July 2017, when Sky considered the arrival of Soundreef and LEA – new independent Management of copyright entities– wants to review Siae’s fees.
And this is how the pay TV has paid a determined amount unilaterally, but rejected by Siae because it is out of the agreements and deemed unfair. Thus the cry of the thousand is launched, including 4 Italian Oscar Awards – Bernardo Bertolucci, Ennio Morricone, Nicola Piovani and Gabriele Salvatores – which does not allow exceptions: “#handsdown from copyright“. The letter of Siae concludes with a warning: “If this strategy were to pass, we would witness the incredible assertion of the paradox that by paying less authors and editors would result in an increase in cultural production. An insult to all those who helped to bring ‘cultural industry in third place in our economy'”.
