Copyright Battle Takes Macedonian Music Off Air

The Musical Copyright Society of Macedonia, ZAMP, which represents some 6,000 musicians in the country, has issued a ban on broadcasting music by its members in protest against what it says is the culture ministry's continual attempts to cut songwriters' and performers' earnings and install a parallel association under government control.

The ban came after the culture ministry gave a licence to the newly-formed SOKOM MAP association to collect songwriters' and performers' fees from TV and radio broadcasters.

"Their goal is to divide the authors and to put a hand on the money collected by ZAMP. Thus the new association, SOKOM MAP, has become an instrument in the culture ministry's hands," ZAMP said in a statement.

The culture ministry said that it is still considering its next steps and told BIRN on Tuesday that "for now we are refraining from commenting on the harsh accusations against us".

In its own response to the ban, SOKOM MAP urged the ministry to revoke ZAMP's licence and called on broadcasters to ignore the ban.

It insisted that ZAMP represents only a small fraction of Macedonian musicians, and strongly rejected the claim that SOKOM MAP was in fact working for government interests.

Caught in the middle of the dispute, the TV and radio stations say they have no other choice but to stop playing Macedonian music, although by law their musical output must consist of at least 40 per cent of music by Macedonians.

"As of today, we decided to stop playing Macedonian music. Either way, we risk legal repercussions and steep fines," one editor-in-chief of a regional radio station told BIRN under condition of anonymity.

Most broadcasters seemed to share the same opinion.

"We inform you that with this ban,...