The Asia-Pacific Music Collective Management Association (ACMA) has updated its licensing rates for karaoke machines used at KTVs, which would increase the payments for operators.
Licensing fees for for-profit karaoke machines at restaurants would increase to NT$1,000 (US$30.51), those for public entertainment, such as community classes, are to rise to NT$700, while they are to be NT$350 for activity centers.
Holiday Entertainment has about 1,900 karaoke rooms nationwide, so it faces an additional NT$5 million in licensing fees under the new rates, which were announced in December last year.
Photo: Chiu-Shao-wen, Taipei Times
The changes have been met with discontent from KTV operators such as Holiday Entertainment and Cashbox Partyworld Co, as well as the Chinese Music Song and Lyrics Broadcast Association, which have jointly filed a petition with the Intellectual Property Office to review the hikes, sources said yesterday.
It is not the first time KTV operators have protested rate hikes by the association, but provisions of the Copyright Collective Management Organization Act (著作權集管團體條例) show that it can set the licensing rates of intellectual property that it oversees and manages.
Songwriters commonly use collective management organizations to manage their works. The organizations, after licensing the right to use the songs, pay the creators royalties from the proceeds.
The act says that such entities must uphold the rights of public broadcast, public transmission and public performance, with KTV operators required to get licensing rights from them.
The Intellectual Property Office yesterday said that it is obligated to review the issue and decide within four months.
During the review, both sides would be asked to provide further documents as needed, such as KTV song lists and how often songs are used, the office said, adding that delays in providing documents would drag out the review.
Seven of the 17 NT$10 million (US$311,604) winning receipts from the November-December uniform invoice lottery remain unclaimed as of today, the Ministry of Finance said, urging winners to redeem their prizes by May 5. The reminder comes ahead of the release of the winning numbers for the January-February lottery tomorrow. Among the unclaimed receipts was one for a NT$173 phone bill in Keelung, while others were for a NT$5,913 purchase at Costco in Taipei's Neihu District (內湖), a NT$49 purchase at a FamilyMart in New Taipei City's Tamsui District (淡水), and a NT$500 purchase at a tea shop in New Taipei City's
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
Deliveries of delayed F-16V jets are expected to begin in September, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said today, after senior defense officials visited the US last week. The US in 2019 approved a US$8 billion sale of Lockheed Martin F-16 jets to Taiwan, a deal that would take the nation’s F-16 fleet to more than 200 jets, but the project has been hit by issues including software problems. Koo appeared today before a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which is discussing different versions of the special defense budget this week. The committee is questioning officials today,
TALENT SCOUTING: The university is investing substantial funds in its future to bring in the kind of researchers that would keep the college internationally competitive National Taiwan University (NTU) plans to invest NT$2 billion (US$62.6 million) to launch two programs aimed at attracting and retaining top research talent, university president Chen Wen-chang (陳文章) said yesterday. The funding would support the “Palm Grove Scholars Project,” which targets academics aged 40 to 55. Up to 20 scholars would be selected, each receiving as much as NT$10 million annually, Chen said. The initiative is designed to attract leading researchers to Taiwan and strengthen NTU’s global competitiveness by fostering a more research-friendly environment and expanding international collaboration, he said. NTU is also introducing a “Hong Hu” chair grant, which would provide Palm
RSS