Discretion in movie royalties

China's Film Copyright Society recently unveiled its charges, based on which movie royalties will be collected from Internet cafs, long-distance bus operators and other organizations that screen movies on their networks. This may be a move to protect copyright, but all parties involved should have been consulted before such charges were imposed, says an article in China Youth Daily. Excerpts:

It is understandable that people should pay for the movies they watch. Business organizations that screen them on their networks, too, should be made to pay.

But the authorities are being unreasonable in imposing a flat rate of royalty on all organizations that they assume offer movie-screening facilities.

The truth is, not all Internet cafs screen movies or offer movie-watching options to surfers. Some long-distance buses do not even have TV screens to show movies.

The authorities should, therefore, not make business organizations pay a flat rate of royalty for screening movies.

Based on the charges unveiled recently, each Internet caf has to pay a certain amount, probably based on its yearly income, which in most cases is not high. The same applies to networks and other parties.

The authorities should not protect one party's interest and sacrifice that of others. And they should make the royalties they collect public to ensure transparency.