A modest charity concert given by World War II veterans in Samara last year has emerged at the center of a dispute on intellectual property law after state television mistakenly reported that the elderly performers were being forced to pay royalties.
The state-run Vesti television channel reported Wednesday that the Russian Authors' Society, or RAO, a public watchdog protecting the rights of intellectual property owners, had asked investigators to look into the November concert. The group complained that the veterans had been singing war-era songs for more than 60 years without royalties to their composers.
Several politicians and scores of bloggers accused the group of humiliating the veterans on the eve of the 65th anniversary of Victory Day over the Nazis.
But RAO officials told The Moscow Times on Thursday that they were demanding money from Samara's Oktyabrsky district — which arranged the concert to celebrate its 70th anniversary — not from the veterans.
According to the Russian law on intellectual property rights, organizers of such concerts must sign an agreement with RAO, which represents the authors whose songs are used.
The group performed several famous Russian war-era tunes that are not yet in the public domain.
"The district administration has declined to sign the contract with us. Just as you can't drive in someone else's car without permission, you can't use someone else's intellectual property," Tatyana Fedoseyenko, the deputy director of the RAO's Samara branch, told The Moscow Times by phone.
She added that among the songs performed by other groups that day were pop tunes by Italian artist Toto Cutugno and Yury Shatunov, the frontman for several boy bands of the 1980s.
Samara prosecutors supported RAO in the conflict, saying in November that the district administration had violated the authors' property rights.
Still, the decision has infuriated members of local veterans organizations.
"I am a war veteran and I want to sing a war song, so do I have to pay for it?" said Pyotr Gorshkov, the head of Samara's veterans group, who sings in the choir.
Andrei Imukov, a spokesman for the Samara city administration, told The Moscow Times that the concert was strictly not for profit.
"It was a celebration of the district and not a money-making gathering," he said, describing the current law on intellectual property as "controversial."
Under the Civil Code, intellectual property rights are waived only if the music is performed during official state concerts, funerals or religious ceremonies.
RAO said in a statement Thursday that it would ask the State Duma to amend the Civil Code to make it possible to use the music without paying royalties to authors during the charity events.
Events like the one in Samara are supposed to pay a fixed amount, in this case about $100, said Hazbi Dzhatiyev, an assistant to RAO's director general.
Last year, RAO collected more than 2.7 billion rubles ($91 million) in revenue.
Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov called the situation "nonsensical."
"It's absolutely impossible to charge those who are singing the songs of World War II," Zyuganov said during the Vesti report.
Irina Tulubyeva, a lawyer specializing in intellectual property, said in performances like the one in Samraa the organizers — not the performers — are responsible for any royalties.
"It doesn't matter who is singing the songs — veterans or ballet dancers. It's the organizers who are obliged to pay," she said.
She also said the amendments proposed by RAO could damage Russia's international reputation since they could also concern the rights of foreign artists, which RAO is also required to protect.