Exclaim!, as well as several other publications, recently reported about how hard rock legends Deep Purple were targeted in a bizarre royalties issue. The article relayed via Russia Today expressed how the band performed a show in Russia and were then ordered to pay royalties for playing their own tunes.
Apparently, much of the story was misunderstood, as Exclaim! reader and Russian speaker Pirkko Vishnevskij relates in an email to our offices. According to this source, the band is not being forced to pay royalties to a third party for performing their own songs. It is actually the promoter of the concert on October 19, 2008, who defied the NGO - Russian Author's Society - when failing to cough up royalty coin.
"Really what happened is that the Russian authors' society went to court to try to collect performance royalties for the Deep Purple concert from the local promoter who apparently (judging by the court proceedings) went to great lengths not to pay them," Vishnevskij tells Exclaim! in his email. He goes on to claim that the misinformation about who owes what is due to a confused blogger.
"The Russia Today piece of news seems to be based on a post of a highly popular and influential Russian blogger, because it just gives his view on the matter. Curiously enough, this blogger, Anton Nosik, included in his post a link to scanned court documents (court decision, in Russian), which no one, including him, seems to be bothered to read. No one is fining Deep Purple, quite to the contrary."
Since we have failed to learn Russian and Deep Purple have still yet to comment, it's a tough call on deciding who to believe in this strange royalties debacle.
Apparently, much of the story was misunderstood, as Exclaim! reader and Russian speaker Pirkko Vishnevskij relates in an email to our offices. According to this source, the band is not being forced to pay royalties to a third party for performing their own songs. It is actually the promoter of the concert on October 19, 2008, who defied the NGO - Russian Author's Society - when failing to cough up royalty coin.
"Really what happened is that the Russian authors' society went to court to try to collect performance royalties for the Deep Purple concert from the local promoter who apparently (judging by the court proceedings) went to great lengths not to pay them," Vishnevskij tells Exclaim! in his email. He goes on to claim that the misinformation about who owes what is due to a confused blogger.
"The Russia Today piece of news seems to be based on a post of a highly popular and influential Russian blogger, because it just gives his view on the matter. Curiously enough, this blogger, Anton Nosik, included in his post a link to scanned court documents (court decision, in Russian), which no one, including him, seems to be bothered to read. No one is fining Deep Purple, quite to the contrary."
Since we have failed to learn Russian and Deep Purple have still yet to comment, it's a tough call on deciding who to believe in this strange royalties debacle.
