Hotels providing guests with ambient music and TV programmes via television sets in their rooms should pay royalties, the European Union's top court ruled on Thursday.
The European Court of Justice backed a Spanish body responsible for the management of intellectual property rights, SAGE, against hotel chain Rafael Hotels SA. SGAE claimed the hotel chain broke copyright law by installing TV sets in hotel rooms and playing ambient music within the hotel. "The distribution of a signal by means of television sets by a hotel to its customers is protected by copyright," the court said in a statement.
The EU law on copyright says authors have exclusive right to authorise or prohibit any communication to the public of their works, the court said. "If, by means of television sets ... installed, the hotel distributes the signal to customers staying in its rooms or present in any other area of the hotel, a communication to the public takes place, irrespective of the technique used to transmit the signal," the court said.
Comments
Comments are closed.