During the past few decades, neither the Secretary of Culture nor the regional governments have supervised the SGAE and other collection societies (groups responsible for collecting royalties on behalf of Spanish artists). The Spanish federal government?s failure to pass on these duties to the autonomous governments (except for the Basque government, which received them on July 1) was a serious breach of responsibility.
This unprecedented situation came about after a Constitutional Tribunal decision on November 13, 1997, which deemed that supervision of the collection societies, is a responsibility of the regional governments, not the federal government.
Secretary of Justice Francisco Caamaño and Secretary of Culture Ángeles González-Sinde have exonerated the department in charge of doing so. Caamaño said that ?it is good that we all know there is a law about this, but also that the law that came out of the Constitutional Tribunal has put things in concrete terms.?
Last January, the National Responsibility Commission (CNC, following its Spanish acronym) gave a report on the sector in which it rebuked the organizations for continuing to send information to the Secretary of Culture: ?the reports just as much as the tariffs, and the regional governments have not exercised any control over the collection societies.?
Translated and Edited in English by Brandon Dyches and Jose L. De Haro
