Is Amazon hindering music promotion?
The Austrian Music Fund has had to cancel funding measures planned for the end of the year. The Austrian Music Council believes the main reason for this is a legal dispute with the online bookseller Amazon.
According to a press release from the Austrian Music Council (ÖMR), the cancellation of the funding round is the result of a legal dispute between copyright and artist representatives against Amazon. The US company is refusing to pay the private copying remuneration provided for in Austrian copyright law on storage media that it delivers directly to Austria.
According to the ÖMR, the legal uncertainty resulting from this process means that the funding systems of several collecting societies are under threat and existing funds have been frozen. This means that they are no longer available to the Austrian Music Fund either.
If the copyright societies lose the case against Amazon in the last instance, the ÖMR quotes Harry Fuchs, Managing Director of the Musikfonds, this would have dramatic consequences for the entire industry. The support systems funded by private copying remuneration would collapse.
