The Government ratified that those who play music at private events do not have to pay SADAIC

He Government ratified this Thursday that salons and establishments that pass music at private events They don’t have to pay royalties to the Argentine Society of Music Authors and Composers (SADAIC). In August, through Decree 765/2024the regulations that regulate intellectual property in Argentina were modified.

This law, which protects copyright over different cultural expressions, ensures that the authors of literary, musical, dramatic and cinematographic works, among others, have control over the use of their creationsallowing them authorize or prohibit the reproduction, distribution and public performance thereof.

However, currently there are different ways of consuming this type of contentso the Government made the decision to update and redefine the standard.

The Government statement ratifying the measure

In a document written by the Ministry of Justice, headed by Mariano Cúneo LibaronaSADAIC, among other companies, was informed that “There is no public representation or performance when it takes place in a private setting, whether it is a permanent or temporary occupation.”

Likewise, the document details that “regardless of whether it is a musical or cinematographic work, records, sound films, radiotelephone transmissions and their retransmission or diffusion through loudspeakers, the one carried out by performers or singers, as well as the one carried out by mechanical, electronic or digital means, including the Internet.

Furthermore, he defined the concept of “private sphere” such as “private homes or other equivalents” and also the “private places with public access whose entry is restricted due to the development of events under conditions of privacy and reservation”.

Under this line, the minister of Deregulation and Transformation of the State, Federico Sturzenegger explained that there is public execution “only when it occurs in areas of open and free access” for a “plurality of people”: “When the execution is private it is obvious that there is no public execution and a SGCD (Collective Rights Management Societies) has nothing to do there,” he indicated on his X account (formerly Twitter).

And he concluded: “When you play music in your home you are already paying the rights that correspond to that private reproduction. In short, the law does not relate payment to profit but rather to the public or private nature of the reproduction.“.

Modifications in the intellectual property law

Decree No. 41,223/34, which regulates Law No. 11,723, experienced two key changes. On the one hand, the new article 33 which establishes that public execution is “that which is carried out – whatever its purposes may be – in a public access space, free and aimed at a plurality of people“.

This influences executions performed live by artists, such as those made through mechanical, electronic or digital means.

As detailed by the Minister of Deregulation and Transformation of the State of the Argentine Nation, Federico Sturzeneggerdetailed through X that the reproduction of content in the private sphere of the hotel and tourist activities will specifically be excluded from the executions.

On the other hand, the article 35, which now indicates: “Musical works, cinematographic works and phonograms They may not be publicly performed or transmitted or retransmitted by any means.without express authorization from the holders of their rights, their successors, representatives or the collective management companies that represent them.”

Furthermore, any person who obtains a financial reward for the public execution of a work, must give compensation to rights holders. In any case, it is clarified that, when the works are used with educational purposes in educational establishments or during patriotic commemorationsit will not be necessary to pay compensation.