Petteri Pyyny
16 Jan 2003 11:53
It seems that Finnish equivalents of American RIAA, Teosto, which represents songwriters and publishers, and Gramex, which represents music producers and artists, want to force Finnish day nurseries to pay royalties every time nursery staff sings along with kids.
Currently most of the Finnish cities have an existing deal with Gramex to use pre-recorded music in government-owned day nurseries. But now it seems that also Teosto wants to have its slice. According to Teosto's rep, every "musical performance" that uses copyrighted songs -- including sing-along by staff with the kids -- should be liable of paying royalties to Teosto. Also Gramex wants to force the private (those not owned by government) day nurseries to pay for the records they use in nurseries.
In last year both organizations demanded Finnish government to abolish the system that allows churches to use religious hymns without royalties, even if the songs would normally require royalties to be paid (the copyrights cease 70 years after the original composer's death).
Source: Iltalehti (requires registration, Finnish only)