Milei government deregulates collection of author’s royalties

President Javier Milei government has decreed the deregulation of the collection of authorship royalties in Argentina, whose processing was previously obliged to pass through a society for artists but can now be transmitted without intermediation.

Until the decree artists had to collect their royalties via one of the SGC (sociedades de gestión colectiva) societies, depending on whether they are musicians, screenwriters, actors, film directors or writers. 

The decree, published in the Official Gazette on February 27, authorises the creation of new SGCs via which to collect royalties while permitting authors to process their royalties through individual agreements without intermediation with the aim of eliminating "monopolies" and "cultural oppression."

"Until now the state controlled the income of all artists, obliging them to pass their royalties through an organisation authorised by the state," said Deregulation & State Transformation Minister Federico Sturzenegger, one of the driving-forces behind the decree, in his X account.

Concert impresario Daniel Grinbank hailed the measure, telling the La Nación newspaper : "Ever since I was born I had it clear that until the day of my death, I would always be paying the highest levies in the world to the Argentine SGCs."

Critics, however, did not hold back. The Sociedad Argentina de Autores y Compositores (SADAIC) presented an administrative challenge asking the government to drop the decree as unconstitutional. 

A lawsuit was also lodged in the federal courts with the same aim. 

The Sociedad General de Autores de la Argentina (Argentores) also criticised the decree, explaining that these organisations do not just collect money but also assist their members with "pensions, financial assistance, prepaid health schemes, medicine, consulting clinics and psychiatrists, national and international legal aid, as well as generally encouraging authors in their work."

"Jeopardising that social function is to attack the subsistence of the creative themselves," pointed out Argentores in a communiqué published in their website

Apart from SADAIC and Argentores, the organisations affected by the decree are Sociedad Argentina de Gestión de Actores Intérpretes (SAGAI), Directores Argentinos Cinematográficos (DAC) and the SGC, formed by Asociación Argentina de Intérpretes Musicales (AADI) and Cámara Argentina de Productores de Fonogramas y Videogramas (CARIF).

Last August, the government had already amended a norm with the aim of exempting dance halls, nightclubs and hotels from paying royalties to SADAIC for the reproduction of songs at private events.

– TIMES/AFP