Business News Labels & Publishers

Russian government considering taking over collective licensing

By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 5 September 2016

With all the continuing hoo and a little bit of haa around the fraud allegations made against Russia’s song rights collecting society RAO, the Russian government is reportedly considering taking over some or all of the collective licensing regime in the country.

It’s not the first time the government in Russia has talked about taking on responsibility for collecting and distributing music royalties where collective licensing applies. And according to Russian business newspaper Vedomosti, that possibility was discussed again at a meeting of the country’s Ministry Of Economic Development last week.

In addition to the fraud allegations, which have seen RAO General Director Sergei Fedotov jailed ever since his arrest on those charges, there has been disagreement within the collecting society’s membership, with a small group of members calling for a new chief to be appointed and a radical overhaul of the organisation’s constitution.

The RAO Authors’ Council, which is the main governing body of the society, continues to back Fedotov and responded angrily to the members seeking a radical overhaul. All eyes will now be on producer and composer Igor Matvienko, who was elected as President of the Authors’ Council last month. He has been critical of RAO himself of late, but at the same time opposes the attempted coup to overthrow Fedotov and current management.

It’s thought that the Russian government could use this squabbling as an excuse to intervene and take on some or all collective licensing duties, though RAO and the other collecting societies in Russia – the recording rights focused VOIS and RCP, which collects a private copy levy – are all likely to oppose any such move.