Exactmobile/NORM royalty dispute continues

"Our agreement with SARRAL shows our commitment to the artists we work with, and our true nature as a legitimate player in the music industry," commented Davin Mole, CEO. "We have recently been accused in the media of infringing copyright and avoiding payments for royalties. Instead we have been negotiating with SARRAL and other players for some time now and we believe this vindicates our position that 5% is a fair royalty. We have accrued unpaid royalties into a trust account, and can now make these funds available to composers via SARRAL."

While NORM, however would not comment on the wisdom of a deal which it believes undercuts the interests of SARRAL's members, it welcomes the underlying assumption that WASPA members will no longer make use of NORM repertoire.

"There are many operators who do more than pay lip service to the rights of composers," said Jay Savage on behalf of NORM. "Although they represent less than 10% of commercial music in SA it is apparent that SARRAL has a vast repertoire of songs for Exactmobile to exploit. NORM assumes therefore, that Exactmobile will now cease making use of musical works for which they have no permission and will account to us in full for all works used to date."

Norm believes the reasonableness of its stipulated rate of 7,5% is confirmed by the agreements concluded with other mobile content providers including Musica and Pick n Play.

"SARRAL's deal with Exactmobile is a disgrace," said producer Godfrey 'Guffy' Pilane (Malaika). "I think SARRAL members will be very unhappy to learn that the society that should be fighting for the highest revenues has sold out so quickly to a company that refuses to give the creators of music what is fair. This is our music and if we do not attach value to it, it will soon have no value," he said.