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Deep Purple fined in Russia
A Russian court has fined Deep Purple for “illegally” performing their own songs, according to russiatoday.com.
The concert in question took place on October 19, 2008 in Russia’s southern city of Rostov-on-Don.
According to the court’s ruling, the musicians – Ian Gillan, Ian Paice and Roger Glover – should have obtained a license from the all-Russian NGO, “Russian Authors’ Society” for the public performance of any of their songs. The organization represents the rights of foreign performers in Russia – even without these performers giving the NGO permission to represent them.
For every “unlicensed” song, the court imposed a penalty of 30,000 roubles (about 1,000 dollars) on the organizers of the concert for payment to the “Russian Authors’ Society” which, in its turn, is supposed to make payments to the authors – Gillan, Paice and Glover.
Lawyers say the real reason for the suit might be that the “Russian Authors’ Society” receives revenues from those royalties received.
Blogger peplov points out that the judge misinterpreted the Articles of Association of the “Russian Authors’ Society”. It clearly says that the organization was created by authors for protecting their rights in their field of intellectual activities. “The Society is based upon the principle of free will, equal membership rights and democratic self-management,” peplov said, quoting the document. “Can’t the judge read?” the perplexed blogger asked.
Professional lawyers say the court’s ruling sticks to the letter of the law, noting that case law – which could help avoid such confusing situations – is not used in Russia.
thanks to George Kikonishvili for the news.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
They fined not Deep Purple, but the company which organized the concert! RAS also included in the bill 7500 roubles (240 $) for the tickets of their inspectors who visited concert and made an audio record =)))
July 3rd, 2009 at 08:59What a crazy world …
DP are fined for their O W N written and composed songs …
That´s unbelievable …
Is it April the first in russia ???
Danger: Maybe in the future, all russians have to be awere of thier OWN russian language, ´cause they may have to pay a fine, when they talk in russian language …
But that´s what the holy bible says: At the end of time, everything will be crazy until HE will arrive !! Now we are in the end of time.
-kraatzy-
July 3rd, 2009 at 09:31Only in Russia 😉
July 3rd, 2009 at 10:46I see the Soviet Union is not dead…
July 3rd, 2009 at 11:30hope our u s a prez does not follow the Russians suite–he is taxing the air we breathe : )
July 3rd, 2009 at 15:31Let the lawyers deal with this. Pretty interesting though. Could there be more to this than just old fashioned money grabbing? On a lighter note – I guess Deep Purple could have played Bach tunes all night and everything would have been OK, eh? MIKE
July 3rd, 2009 at 15:35i think the KGB has something to do with this !
July 3rd, 2009 at 16:17Sami:
July 3rd, 2009 at 21:09It is not only in Russia. Keep in mind that back in the 80s (maybe early 90s) John Fogerty was sued by his previous record company for plagerizing himself. THey argued that one of his songs Old Man down the road was too much like one of his CCR songs and therefore he was sued for copying himself.He had to play both songs in the courtroom to demonstrate the differences between the two songs.
No, Soviet Union died many years ago… but it’s still alive only in Russia.
The fact is – Deep Purple was fined for playing their own material. That’s absolutely unbelievable for the rest of the world…but you believe it or not-that’s quite “legall” in Russia- The old money-making system, that’s simple…
Particularly when it happens in the little provincial part of Russia, as it is Rostov-on-Don…
So, generally I was shocked while reading this info… But then I thought – “Hey… It’s Russia, so why surprised?”
Let the band hug Medvedev and Putin once more…
July 3rd, 2009 at 21:10Don’t forget that old Purple songs are credited to 5 people, so it’s the way mr.Lord and mr.Blackmore are getting their royalties from live shows.
July 4th, 2009 at 04:03“James O’Brien says:
July 4th, 2009 at 04:25Sami:
It is not only in Russia. Keep in mind that back in the 80s (maybe early 90s) John Fogerty was sued by his previous record company for plagerizing himself. THey argued that one of his songs Old Man down the road was too much like one of his CCR songs and therefore he was sued for copying himself.He had to play both songs in the courtroom to demonstrate the differences between the two songs.”
John had lost the rights to his own music and was sued by the owner(s) of said tunes.
James O’Brien: I remember the Fogerty-incident, surreal as it was. My comment wasn’t to be taken literally, just my two cents in what seems unbelievable nowadays!
Have a great weekend everyone, cheers
July 4th, 2009 at 08:01Actually, the whole case was slightly misinterpreted. In fact, the court fined the local russian promoters and not the band.Russian legislaiton protects authors of the songs by licensing every performance of ther songs by third parties and paying respective loyalties to songwriters.
As I understood the problem is, that a band is not considerd a songwriter.Therefore, DP is automatically a third party in relation to authors of the songs. Regardless the fact that the band consists of people who wrote these songs.
In order to finish the picture of overall absurdity i think it is worth mentioning that the penalty collected from the promoters will be paid to Messrs. Gillan, Glover, Paice, Lord and Blackmore, who are the real authors of songs performed, from legal point of view.
We’re back in USSR (c) Lennon/McCartney
July 4th, 2009 at 11:41MONEY GOES TO MONEY
July 4th, 2009 at 16:04YES IT ALWAYS RETURNS
FINDS IT’S WAY BACK TO THE BIG HOUSE
WHERE IT LIVES ALL ALONE
WRAITHLIKE SILENT PARTNERS
OPERATORS OF THE SYSTEM
GIVE WORDS OF QUIET ASSURANCE
TO AN OTHERWISE HEALTHY VICTIM
………WHERE DO I PAY MY FINE?
Ladies & Gentlemen! My letter in the first place was intended as just a comment on the last piece of news concerning DP allegedly being fined somewhere in Russia. I’m Russian. I love DP. If you ask how I’ll answer almost religiously. True, I’m no the one to tear my T-shirt into two during Smoke or something like this. No, it all goes in different way. Just everyday while driving my four-year old son keeps asking me, “Dad, please put Highway Star”. When the song is over he asks to put SOTW and then Ted Mechanic and then Lazy and then it goes on and on. And I know for sure that my younger nine-day old son will love the songs I love the way I do when his age allows. That’s my personal tribute to the best band in the world.
July 4th, 2009 at 20:42On second thoughts I changed my mind. I’ve seen for several times angry posts from site administration concerning freedom of speech within THS and the way you editors construe it. For many times I’ve seen the ban for comments due to various reasons.
I have to admit this practice exists only on Purple-related sites. I visit sites of other rock giants and moderation there is not about banning something. It’s about discussion and lack of forbidden issues. I always tried to understand why it’s different here – may be because of our common “DP-are-overlooked-and-half-forgotten” complex – I don’t know.
I agree censorship should exist as part of inner freedom and responsibility.
When I saw today the post about fining Purple in Russia I wasn’t surprised at first. I got used to the things like that. I was not surprised by the reader’s comments either. But then I thought, “Why?” “Why again?”
That’s how the stereotypes are being born and kept alive. I’ve been on THS for many years and never commented on any issues but tonight the “itch gets scratched”.
Frankly speaking I don’t understand why you post the vivid stupidity? Among editors I saw Mr. Soveiko who I suppose didn’t forget his native language. None of you took a labour of checking the news spread by some moron (you will deliberately moderate this word – but I used it on purpose) who obviously hates my country. Why you let people act like this? Time will pass and may be you will tell people the news was a fake but THS readers will remember only the headline. Read my lips — The Russian local court didn’t sue Purple. It sued the company promoter for not paying the loyalties to Purple and for not paying the special state tax for organising gigs. But the truth doesn’t matter, does it?
Be wiser, dear editors! Be broader in your opinions! Forget your bloc thinking! Be freer in discussions! Don’t be afraid of your readers! Let them write anything they want. If someone is an idiot people will eventually see it. Get rid of pre-conceived ideas of my country, too. I wonder what happens if someone sends you a headline like say Steve Morse played balalaika as Russian bears danced on stage with Ian Gillan? Would you post it? Trust me – if you would there were some people who’d buy it. I’ve seen a lot of such people ten years ago when I lived in US. Nothing has changed much since then and a little will change if you post news like that.
Nevertheless, thank you very much indeed for your work. Deep inside I’m sure all you do is meant for the main deed of your life – keep DP legend alive!
Yours,
to andrey …
You be right man.
That is the problem with the truth and a lot of informations they called the full truth and if this truth is only the half truth.
I understand, that you love your country and that absolutly okay in the same way I love my country.
If this happend in THIS WAY with DP, I think, now it´s the time to the officials from THE HIGHWAYSTAR to communicate with the officials from the DP Mangerment to get a correction at this place.
-kraatzy-
July 5th, 2009 at 07:192 Andrey:
The fact that it was not the band who was fined but the local promoter, does not make the case any less idiotic.
Maybe I’m too narrow-minded, but I cannot understand why should local company pay royalties for performance of Dp songs by the band itself. Not playing the song over the air, not performed by a cover band, but (read my lips) by the same band who wrote these songs!!!! With certain stretch of imagination I could understand (well, not really…) if the case would be brought to court on behalf of Blackmore/Lord. But no! It is the current line-up whose copyrights are being ‘protected’.
Not mentioning the fact that to my knowledge noone neither from the band nor from the management is aware of this heroic act of protection of their intellectual rights from themselves…
Of course, you are right that misinterpretation needs to be corrected. But even in corrected form this is a sample of bureaucratic idiotism at its best. And the case doesn’t get any better by the fact that you and many thousands of other people in Russia love DP.
And think about this: next time this (or any other promoter) will think twice before bringing DP or other band to Russia…
July 5th, 2009 at 19:13“… but I cannot understand why should local company pay royalties for performance of Dp songs by the band itself. Not playing the song over the air, not performed by a cover band, but (read my lips) by the same band who wrote these songs!”
That’s like that here in Germany as well. We have the GEMA. Every promotor of a show has to pay a certain amount of $$$ to the GEMA (that’s measured by attendance and ticket prices). In return, the GEMA splits the $$$ (minus handling commssion) and pays the composers. The GEMA is the sole repesentative entitled to collect and distribute composers royalties.
July 5th, 2009 at 21:12Andrey Barabanshchikov,
Ok, we all love our country, but that doesn’t mean one should legitimise some stuppidest court-decisions just because someone loves DP or his own country.
Speaking about Russia, you know better than anyone, how thw LAW “works” in Russia, but it’s not the main point of our subject.
The fact is: this particular decision is probably one of the most stupid decisions concerning to the music industry. It doesn’t matter Russian court fined DP management or promoters. WHY?
let’s discuss both versions:
1. Russia fined Deep Purple!
I don’t even want to explain how ridiculous and unbelieveable the decision is, because DEEP PURPLE is the ongoing band, they have ABSOLUTE right to play DEEP PURPLE SONGS. Thinking about who was the composer for the songs is totally out of place, coz DP has had 7 different lineups, and the 8th NOW. I bet no court in no country would think about fining MKII for playing Hush, fining MKIII for playing SOTW, HS or any other hits, nobody thought fining MkV when JLT sang Child In Time, replacing Gillan. The whole DP catalogue was written by many lineups and many members. (e.g Child In Time composed by Gillan himself)… so, the FULL catalogue and intellectual rights belongs to the BAND DEEP PURPLE, not to the particular now/past members. So, Russian court has absolutely NO right to fine DP for playing their own songs, that’s simple. I;m sure you agree with me…
THE SECOND VERSION:
2. Russia fined promoters
This decision is even more ridiculous in some ways. You say: promoters should have payed for DP coz they played a concert. And I’m quite sure promoters did it. Could you tell me please, what does the promoters do when they book band for the show??? THEY PAY ROYALTY/HONORAR to the band, organise the show, then band comes and gives live… that’s also simple.
If you wonder, DP gets 200 000$ honorar per show. This means that, promoters have payed 200 000$ to the band, and then the band gave a concert, this is a intellectual-property payment – band gets the money for playing THEIR SONGS live.
NOW, could you explain us, please, WHY Russia fined DP or promoters if DP played their OWN songs and promoters payed ROYALTY/HONORAR to the band for the performance, when they booked them??????????
Dear Andrey, let’s face it, THIS IS RAPTURE OF RUSSIA!
this is simply too much old-fashined money-making system and nothing more.
Don’t talk us about how Russia cares about the intellectual property of foreign artists. My friend has CD/DVD store and he buys HUNDREDS of pirate CD and DVDs in Moscow (where pirate CDs are LEGALLY distributed in the city) and then sells them here.
Deep Purple’s last album, Rapture of the Deep sold over 7 000 copies in my city, that means the album went PLATINIUM (considering Georgia’s population of 4 million people)… but don’t be mistaken, no one named rapture as the Platinium album in Georgia… because Georgian CD stores sold 7 000 ILLEGAL/PIRATE copies printed and distributed in MOSCOW.
So, you are maybe very dissapointed about how people talk about Russia, but remember, you know it better, there’s still SOVIET UNION in there.
So, if you want your country to be mentioned in better ways than now, then, make Russian ‘lawmakers’ first to fine local studios for printing thousands of pirate CD/DVDs…
and then… and let them know, that ANY band has right to play their own songs…. and that promoters pay royalties for the band when they book one…
Cheers!
July 5th, 2009 at 21:33To Kraatzy:
July 5th, 2009 at 22:39Thank you!
To Robert:
Thank you very much for your I hope sincere effort to understand what’s going on but you’ll have to read my Russian lips twice. I can’t help recalling the brilliant S. Coppola’s Lost In Translation. Although my lips speak English with heavy Russian accent and your English makes me think that it is your native tongue please try to understand – the case has NOTHING to do with Purple. NOTHING AT ALL!
The thing is there are some laws in some country, in Russia in particular. They may seem stupid, that’s right. Actually there are a lot of stupid laws in many states across the globe. For example, snoring is still illegal in Missouri. As far as I’m concerned people still live there.
Yes, Russian copyright law needs much to be desired but dura lex, sed lex.
I own the ad agency. We produce a lot of commercials and sometimes I do a voice-over for them. Russian TV channels can accept my ads to be air played only less than one condition – if I pay loyalties to the authors of the commercial (text, music, voice-over etc.) i.e. to myself. Idiotic? Sounds like it is!
So the situation doesn’t sound like Russian local court sued DP. NO! Russian local court sued promoter (Yug-Art ltd.) which is by way considered to be the incorrigible defaulter. The fore mentioned company in accordance with Russian law should have paid some loyalties (a priori) to the band however not directly to Gillan, Glover, Lord, Paice, Blackmore but via Russian Authors Society. Yug-Art didn’t do it – so it was sued. That’s all! It happened only in one Russian city – Rostov-Na-Donu. Remember that DP 2008 Russia & Ukraine tour covered 12 big cities.
Speaking of the next time for the promoter.
By the way, DP gig across Russia much often than any other area in the world so I doubt if there are some obstacles in booking the band for any promoter. DP tours are always highly profitable in Russia for any promoter. The conclusion is – respect the law and you’re going to be just fine. Naïve? Ha-ha! Choose yourself!
Yours,
I wonder how much are fined market squares and illegal mp3 sites in former Soviet Union for selling dP (and related) material without paying ANY royalties to the record companies, writers, players etc…
July 6th, 2009 at 06:25Surely this story is more typical of the USA, or Europe……
Maybe Russia is finally catching up with petty bureaucracy, and mindless authority……..
Welcome to our world………..Добро пожаловать
Mind you ….We have our own ‘secret police’ moderators….
July 6th, 2009 at 08:13Andrey,
You keep on moving on the same circle.
LEt’s imagine as if I’m promoter, I booked DP, payed them royalty/honorar for gig, organised an event, rented the arena and all in all, the gig took place.
After several months, some obscure Authors Society says: “the promoter should have asked us the right, so that we’d have allowed DP to play their own songs”…
I guess that they fined not DP, but promoters. but who asks RAS to care about authors intelectual property? DP was payed a royalty by the promoter for playing gig. and WHY should promoters pay to some RAS?????
Plz, stop trying to legitimise court’s decision, it’s absolutely foolish. Let’s face it, this particular “law” and so called “Russian Authors Society” is simply the old fu**ed money-making system and nothing more.
I REMIND YOU MY QUESTION:
Why doesn’t RAS care about the houndreds and thousands pirate CD/DVDs which are printed and being sold in Moscow quite publicly, almost legally???
What about the intellectual-rights in the post-Soviet countries, believe me, that absolutely NOBODY (not even law) cares about it. and worldwide known bands like DP or others have absolutely no clue how much pirate copies and illegal MP3s are being sold in post-Soviet countries, quite legally.
7000 PIRATE copies of Rapture of the Deep sold in Tbilisi, those pirate copies were bought in Moscow and thel sold here.
What about illegal copies, not like Andrey, I’ll be sincere and say that in Georgia there’re 2 monstrously big sites: http://www.download.ge and http://www.avoe.ge – both sites can’t be reached and viewed if you live outside Georgia. You can download THOUSANDS of films, thousands of PC programs, thousands of Games, motion pictures and probably over half million MP3s for FREE!
The greatest shames are, that both sites are running for years and they have payed 0.00$ to ANY artists/directors/companies/program-makers or so, instead their intellectual property are downloadable for free, but ONLY for the users who use Georgian IP adress.
and the biggest shame: those sites aren’t torrent-like or rapidshare-like ones. http://www.download.ge and http://www.avoe.ge are OFFICIALLY owned by the biggest Internet-provider company of Georgia – Caucasus Online.
So, the problem goes here. some try to make money out of anything, even by fining promoters/bands for not paying some obscure royalties… while some gives internet users to download thousands of movies, songs, programs, games FOR FREE and don’t wish to pay anything to the intellectual property owners. This’s while Moscow prints thousands and millions of pirate/illegal copies of foreign artists’ CDs and sell them.
So Andrey, please stop… We all live in the shit. The difference is that I try to unmask this monster (I mean this illegal works in the word “Monster”), while you try to legitimise it…
July 6th, 2009 at 13:50And yeah, concerning to DP Tours, Russia isn’t the country where DP is most appreciated in the world. Deep Purple visits Germany, France, Switzerland, Denmark, South America several times per year.
July 6th, 2009 at 14:04for the last 10 years DP has extensive tour every year in Germany,
They tour South America almost every year as well and attract quite huge audience (30 000 people per show in 2006)
DP sold 100 000 tickets in France only in 2007. Thus the band was named “the bigest ticket-seller band of the year” in France.
We can name tens of countries, where DP tour extensively every year, not like Russia, where DP tours in every 2-3 years.
So, if the band decides not to tour in Russia anymore, this will make NO loss for them… but Russian fans and promoters will loose toooo much…
I agreed with ‘Andrey’ well before I even read his post, it in fact “has nothing to do with DP.” Although it affects them in the long run. But if it hasn’t been pointed out already, the fine is imposed and the fee extracted, then the rest of the fine is returned. It’s not as bad or expensive as it looks, it’s just business.
George:
Why would they stop touring Russia over this?
Is it something you know for a fact that will not be straightened out?
By the way, making money out of anything is not what they’re doing, it’s a form of taxation when someone is fined for such a thing.
July 6th, 2009 at 20:19Crimson, don’t get mistaken. What Andrey posted, is the classic example how facts and news are interpreted in Russia in order to make people believe, that everything in Russia is just fine and incredible.
I’ve read about 40 news (from 40 DIFFERENT news-agencies)concerning this fact, and ALL OF THEM says, that the company fined DEEP PURPLE, as they had to get license for teach songs they were going to perform live. EVERY Russian news agency reports that this company fined DEEP PURPLE.
According to RussiaToday.com, EVEN RUSSIAN BLOGGERS called this [that company fined Deep Purple] decision “fantastic in it’s idiocy”.
NO news-agencies and NO ONE besides Andrey sayd that court fined promoters. It’s not true, let’s search in google “Deep Purple fined in Russia” and you’ll see many Russian, European, USA and even Canadian sites reports.
btw, d’you really think that only Andrey knows the truth and all of the hundreds of news-agencies which reported about DP’s fining are mistaken???
July 7th, 2009 at 07:29I’m not surprised by new anti-russian hysteria from georgian guy and some others local, er.. ‘writers’. I THS published absolutely crap which so far away from reality, though all documents from lawers are available (in russian language of course) in internet too.
July 7th, 2009 at 07:39In fact, mobody suede DP – we have good example when international and internal laws are work in Russia.
All local promoters (in every country – surprise!) have to pay loyality to authors – even authors are performed they songs themselves. One of promoters tried to not pay (read – stole) that money. They lost in the court and WILL pay loyality. Absolutely normal situation. So you can stop your mob action here.