The Secretary of Industry is in favor of eliminating the fair compensation strategy widely known as the "digital canon," and in its place a new proposal to compensate Spanish artists. The proposed budget would assume the role of collection societies that manage authors and composers´ royalties, placing these responsibilities in the hands of the state. Artists´ work would be sold with an extra tax, which would later on be divided out among the various management groups in charge of distributing these taxes among the artists.
A formula would be used to determine who received what. In the case of the Sociedad General de Autores (SGAE), their formula is one of their most guarded secrets.
Miguel Sebastián is leading the project, and it is aimed at electronic devices such as the Apple iPhone, computer printers and informational support that would be burdened by the digital tax such that the new digital canon would be paid for through taxes.
The proposal has opened a new front between the Secretary of Industry and the Secretary of Culture. The new measure, which is trying to benefit content providers, has spurned secretary Ángeles González Sinde. In her efforts to look after the artists´ interests, she has managed to perpetuate the current payment system.
This change is attempting to adopt the Norwegian model in Spain and kill two birds with one stone, considering that the income that the management groups will receive would end up being investigated for tax purposes. This is something that beleaguers the accounts of groups such as the SGAE.
Translated and Edited in English by Brandon Dyches and Jose L. De Haro