By The Associated Press
GENEVA (AP) -- World Trade Organization experts have issued a preliminary ruling against U.S. copyright law that allows music to be played in public without the payment of royalties, an Irish music organization said Wednesday.
The Irish Music Rights Organization, IMRO, said in a statement that the WTO panel's interim report had ruled sections of the U.S. law were illegal under international competition and trade regulations.
The case was brought by the European Union, based on a complaint by IMRO that Irish songwriters and composers were being denied the payment of royalties when their music was performed in American bars, restaurants, stores and malls via radio or television sets.
It said up to 28 million euros ($26.5 million) a year was being lost to composers and songwriters throughout Europe.
"We believe it is an extremely important decision," said Eamon Shacklton, director of services for the Dublin-based IMRO. "It is the first one concerning intellectual property under the WTO and it signals a reversal of what we felt was the creeping erosion of music creators rights in the United States," he said.
"We hope it will send a signal to other countries," said Shacklton.
The United States has exempted itself from the so-called Bern Convention which grants international copyrights to songwriters and composers. Convention signatories all have nonprofit societies like IMRO to enforce the copyright provisions and collect fees from, for example, bar owners who play music on the radio or television.
IMRO said the WTO panel recommended that the organization's Dispute Settlement Body ask the United States to amend its laws to force bar and mall owners to pay the royalty fees. The annual fees differ from country to country; in Ireland, it's 40 Irish pounds ($48).
The report has not been issued publicly, and both sides in the case declined to comment.
"That's a confidential subject," said EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy.
Neal Walsh, a spokesman at the U.S. mission to the WTO in Geneva, said: "An interim report has been filed and we won't be discussing it." A final report is expected in June, he added.
The latest WTO ruling follows two recent U.S. defeats in trade disputes with the EU -- one involving tax treatment for foreign sales corporations and another involving the U.S. antidumping act of 1916.:
