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Copyright Licences for B&Bs
This is a highly confusing subject, and B&Bs have to face a plethora of different regulators. It seems ridiculous and disproportionate that a very small B&B should be expected to pay four different licences to four different authorities in order to let their guests watch TV, listen to radio and watch films on TV, for instance. – Yet that is the current legal situation.
MPLC - Motion Picture Licensing Company:
In June 2017, this organisation (though it has been around for 30 years), started sending demands for payment to B&Bs and small hotels. This is because of a change in the law the previous year to harmonise it with EU law, which had the result of allowing the playing of broadcasts in "public" places, but giving copyright holders the right to charge for such broadcast plays. Case law has it that communal areas in B&Bs and hotels (eg lounges or dining rooms) are "public" places for these purposes. MPLC represent Hollywood film studios and TV production companies.
Unfortunately this is a complex issue. MPLC DO seem to have the law on their side (they are using similar legal justifications to those of PRS and PPL), but the copyright law in the UK is complex and illogical in this area and without test cases nobody can be sure what a court would decide. The law certainly urgently needs reform.
It is not a scam and as far as any experts can judge, the law does seem to allow what MPLC are doing (and indeed PRS & PPL, whose charges are based on the same quirk of the copyright law), so we cannot (of course) advise members not to pay.
(The issue of council tax or business rates is not relevant. The law at present holds that playing copyright material (even via a TV) to a paying guest in accommodation such as a hotel, guesthouse or B&B constitutes a "public performance" for the purposes of copyright. It is the fact that the guest is paying that is crucial.)
There is information about MPLC's concessions during lockdowns, which they granted last year following our representations, on our main member page - just log in with your password.
We and UK Hospitality are not happy with the way MPLC go about things and are trying to challenge the basis of their charging and some of their methods - UKH are leading on this and we will keep subscribing members advised as any new developments happen.
Meanwhile we are sure you will want to insist that MPLC detail how they are arriving at the charges, by reference to their public tariffs. From the tariff we have seen, the charge should be around £6 per letting bedroom (plus an additional charge if you have a TV in a "public" room like a lounge or breakfast room - unless that TV is locked to show only news or sports channels and cannot show films.
There is a useful and informative podcast from UKH about MPLC here.
We believe the whole area of copyright law as regards TV and radio broadcasts in hotel and B&B rooms needs fundamental reform - but unfortunately there is little chance of DCMS making a priority of this in the forseeable future, so unfortunately we are stuck with yet another copyright licensing body to contend with.
For further information on the MPLC, go to the MPLC website.
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