Problems regarding of cover songs, about the middle of last year, a group of music publishers has sued Fullscreen, one of the largest suppliers of videos to YouTube, saying that many of Fullscreen's videos - particularly cover versions of popular songs - infringe on the publishers' copyrights. This is as excerpted from The New York Times on August 7, 2013.

Fullscreen is one of the largest of the so-called multichannel networks, or M.C.N.'s, which produce their own content - the company's offices are in Culver Studios in Los Angeles, where "Gone With the Wind" and "Citizen Kane" were filmed - and represent the work of thousands of other creators of widely varying sizes. According to Fullscreen, the 15,000 channels the company represents have a total of 200 million subscribers and draw more than 2.5 billion views each month.

Among the most popular videos on YouTube are cover versions of popular songs, often by amateurs or semiprofessionals who have built a following online. But according to the suit, filed in United States District Court in Manhattan on Tuesday by groups represented by the National Music Publishers' Association, most of these lack the proper licenses and do not pay publishers and songwriters the royalties earned from ad revenue. (Publishers represent the music and lyrics underlying songs, not recordings of them, which are covered by a separate copyright.)

According to the suit, Fullscreen and its founder, George Strompolos, who is named as a defendant, "have willfully ignored their obligation to obtain licenses and pay royalties to exploit the vast majority of the musical content disseminated over Fullscreen's networks." A spokeswoman for Fullscreen declined to comment.

The publishers represented in the suit include Warner/Chappell Music, which is owned by the Warner Music Group and is one of the biggest publishers, along with several independents like Songs Music Publishing and Peermusic. An exhibit submitted with the suit lists dozens of songs that Fullscreen is accused of using without proper licenses, including hits by Lady Gaga, Kanye West, Britney Spears and others.

As YouTube has become the default listening service for young people, the music industry has frequently sparred with YouTube and its owner, Google, over the licensing issues, which can be confusingly opaque. YouTube, for example, is responsible for the licensing and royalties of user-generated content loaded directly to its system, but often yields that responsibility to M.C.N.'s and other major partners.

Source : Hukum Online, The New York Times, WIPO International, Ditjen HKI

Legal Analysis

In the music industry, from the point of copyright protection distinguished musical / song composition (music composition) and sound recordings.

Music composition consists of music, including poetry / lyrics. The composition may include a copy of the music notation or an early recording (phonorecord) on cassette tape or CD. Composer / songwriter is considered the author of a musical composition. Meanwhile, voice recording (sound recording) is the result of the consummation of a series of good sounds coming from the music, and the human voice or other sounds. Regarded as the creator of the sound recording is actor / performer (in terms of performance) and or a record producer who has processed voices and refine into a final recording.

In this regard, in Indonesia discussed in Act No. 19 of 2002 on Copyright ("Copyright Act"), the protection of the copyright in the musical composition referred to in Article 12 paragraph (1) d of the Copyright Act :

In this Act protected Creation are Creation in fields of science, art, and literature, which includes:

1. books, computer programs, pamphlets, typographical arrangement (layout) of a published work, and all other written works;
2. speeches, lectures, speeches, and other similar creations with it;
3. props are made for the benefit of education and science;
4. songs or music with or without text;
5. drama or musical drama, dance, choreography, puppetry and pantomime;
6. art in all forms such as painting, drawing, sculpture, calligraphy, art carving, sculpture, collage, and applied arts;
7. architecture;
8. map;
9. batik art;
10. photography;
11. cinematography;
12. translations, interpretations, adaptations, anthologies, databases, and other pieces results of adaptations.

While the protection of the copyright in a sound recording referred to in Article 49 paragraph (1) and (2) of the Copyright Act:

1. Performers have the exclusive right to give permission or prohibit any other party without the consent of make, reproduce, broadcast or recording sound and/or picture of the show.
2. Phonogram Producers have the exclusive right to give permission or prohibit any other party without the consent of reproduces and/or rent recording work or sound recording.

Cover version or cover is a reproduction or bring back a previously recorded song and sung singer / other artists. Not a little, a cover version of the song became even more famous than the songs sung by the original singers. Therefore, many new artists to try their luck with a cover version of the song with the aim to be more successful and instant fame. In Indonesia itself has a lot to make cover versions and eventually became a famous artist, for example, Shinta and Jojo with the song "Keong Racun (Venomous Snail)", Brigadier Norman Kamaru with the song "Chaya Chaya", Gamaliel and Audrey singer who sings a variety of nationally and internationally renowned songs, and many others.

To cover songs that were created for commercial purposes, the inclusion of the name of the original singer alone on the cover is not enough work to avoid lawsuits the copyright holders. In order not to infringe the copyrights of others, to reproduce, record, distribute and or announcing a song belonging to another person, especially for commercial purposes, one needs to obtain a permit (license) from the creator / copyright holder as follows :

1. Mechanical rights, which means the right to copy, reproduce (including rearranging and record a musical composition/song on CD, cassette tape and other recording media;
2. Performing rights, which means the right to announce a song/music composition, including sang, played, either recording or live performance, through radio and television, including through other media such as the Internet, live concert and services programmed music; and or
3. Synchronization rights, which means the right to record a musical composition in synchronization with the frame or image in audiovisual production, such as moving images (movies), television program, commercial television, or video production.

It is contained in the WIPO Treaty on Performances and Phonogram ratified in 1996 in the Presidential Decree No. 74 of 2004 on Ratification of the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty, 1996.

Over royalties paid mechanical rights received by the party who reproduce or record directly to the copyright holder (usually the music publishing company (publisher), which represents composer/ songwriter). While performing the collection of royalties for the granting of rights is generally carried out by an institution (in Indonesia called Collective Management Organization - "CMO") is based on an agreement between the creator and the organization. WAMI (Forum for Indonesian music) and YKCI (Indonesian copyright works foundation) are two of the few CMO in Indonesia, which is currently actively collects and distributes royalties from the use of performing rights to be forwarded to the composer/songwriter and publisher.