[Fmpro] Euro splits

[Mark Northam]

Interesting....

>From what I've heard a major issue is that when a local Euro subpublisher
"re-registers" a work locally, there's in essence a check box that the
sub-pub can check, and if it's checked, no matter if a writer has mechanical
representation or not from a mechanical rights org, if that box is checked
the mechanicals are paid to that sub-pub.

This is one of the main reasons why the big excitement about US authors
finally getting some broadcast mechanical royalties directly by registering
with a mech rights org turned out to be not so exciting after all - the Euro
sub-pubs could cut that income flow off with the flick of a pen, regardless
of what a contract says. And the Euro PROs will honor that re-registration
above all else.

Combine this with the fact that in countries where the split for composers
is better than 50/50, being a US composer means big losses for composers as
the 60 or 66% split is reduced to 50% to respect ASCAP and BMI rules before
the money is sent to the US is not only a huge loss for composers, but a
windfall for publishers, as I would assume their split is increased from 33%
or 40% to 50%.

I can imagine some publishers would not be so happy to see writers actually
getting paid what the originating Euro PRO intended to pay them!

Mark Northam



On 8/2/07 6:10 AM, "Michael Leahy" <writestuff at chello.be> wrote:

> 
> The one thing that really appalls me when dealing with US film and game
> producers is the idea that the mechanicals are negotiable. It's just not
> true outside the US and even if I did a deal that implies this, Sabam
> and Sacem will very actively pursue those rights irrespective of the
> contract. This inevitably causes much grief to companies that are not
> aware of this, and there are plenty of them on both the US and European
> side.