The SGAE has its Government. But, for more than a decade, neither the General Assembly nor the board of directors set the direction of the entity as much as another body accustomed to deciding: the courts. The so-called operation Sagasince 2011, and rueda, Starting in 2016, they shook and paralyzed the main copyright management entity in Spain, in addition to sinking its image: partners detained, ethics questioned, a magnifying glass always on. Both judicial fronts share a long development. And, finally, an epilogue without criminal convictions. Three weeks ago the court dismissed two appeals from the SGAE itself, appearing as a private accusation, and from the Professional Organization of Music Publishers that asked to reopen the wheel casealready archived in May. The order considers it proven that several partners pocketed millions of euros thanks to the repeated broadcast of melodies on early morning programs, with hardly any audience. And yet, he reiterates that there were no crimes. So what was there?
It will not be up to other courts to respond: after two instances, the case has reached its definitive closure without penalties or culprits. Same as for Sagaan alleged diversion of funds of which all the accused, including the former president of the SGAE Eduardo Teddy Bautista, were acquitted in 2021. So those splashed by the operation ruedawhich also included another former president of the entity, José Miguel Fernández Sastrón, and 14 well-known television networks, have more than legitimate reasons to regret a vital odyssey for illegalities that they never committed. Not even a trial has been called: the dismissal has come after a very long investigation phase.
In retrospectit is worth questioning years and years of investigations and accusations now empty of justification. Neither continued crime against intellectual property, nor documentary falsification, fraud, unfair administration, receipt, concealment or money laundering: all of these accusations fell. The resources of SGAE and Opem tried to show that several of these fronts were not analyzed in depth, but the justice system, in its response orders a few weeks ago, has once again disagreed.
There was also no corruption between individuals, the alleged crime that kept the case open, since the payment of gifts could not be proven. The judge confirms “the lack of objective data that would support its existence”; It pulls both the SGAE by the ears, for some moments in which it was put in profile, perhaps due to internal balance, and the investigation: “The lack of investigation into the movements of the bank accounts prevents corroborating the existence of the transfer or others that allow the payment of compensation to be sustained.” And remember another argument that concluded the case: “The private accusations (including the SGAE itself) have not requested the continuation of the procedure.” The Prosecutor’s Office, which promoted the case, also ended up requesting the dismissal of the case.
However, once criminal responsibilities were ruled out, everything that was always criticized the wheel It appears narrated, and corroborated in detail, in the order that filed the case. So the judicial responses leave certainties, but also a few ethical and regulatory questions.. “If we add his collection and that of his assignee Doble Abadir in 2012, Mr. (Juan) López Márquez is ranked 1st in the ranking collection from SGAE members (non-publishers). Despite the above, none of his works are among the most listened to in other media, neither in record sales, nor in downloads through digital platforms, which is very significant,” reads the letter signed in May by Ismael Moreno, of the Central Court of Instruction number 2 of the National Court.
“The practice known as ‘the wheel’ was common, it was normalized,” the text adds. This is how it is known that several members of the SGAE made gold by filling the nighttime schedule with their melodies. Its defenders always stressed that, due to lack of space in prime time, dominated by multinational record companies, at least in the early morning there was room for small Spanish musicians. But the ruling states that the investigation was able to confirm many of the most questioned aspects: retouching works in the public domain minimally or even not at all and registering as an author; attributing the authorship of other symphonies to relatives and acquaintances so as not to attract excessive attention. “The people reported, until 2005, had registered a total of 106 works for the broadcast of which they raised a total of 553,657.76 euros, while in the period 2006-2012 they registered 24,981 works and raised 25,736,577.07 million euros. “, it reads.
“It is also possible to prove that they maintain relationships with those in charge of different television networks, both public and private, in which their musical repertoires are being broadcast with at least some ‘favorable treatment’,” the order continues. The ruling reconstructs how those involved transferred part of the rights to publishers of the chains themselves. And so, finally, everyone received figures of many zeros. The authors, for the broadcast of his pieces. And the broadcasters, as partial owners of the rights. Furthermore, since the SGAE is governed by an internal system that grants more votes to whoever raises the most, those who benefited from the round also influenced the elections and the government of the entity.
The investigation pointed to an alleged fraud that could “amount to 100 million between 2006 and 2011,” according to the May order. Television is the SGAE’s main source of income. And the money is distributed according to the use of each author’s catalog and the time slots of the day. A broadcast in prime time It is worth more than a nightly one, but the percentage difference, for years, was not as great as the audience difference. And there the wheel began to turn. Still in the first half of 2018, the nighttime slot collected 40% of the income that the SGAE obtained from songs performed on television.
“The favored treatment is evident and so is the cornering of the market,” reads the May order. For all this, the Ministry of Culture warned and the SGAE was about to intervene; Cisac, the world organization of management entities, expelled it for a time and Congress was forced to legislate: no time slot can now account for more than 20% of the total income generated by television broadcasting. “All of this has been a corrupt thing, in which you and I have become rich, which is still completely true, but others have also become rich, doing their jobs…”, they share in a conversation telephone intercepted and collected by the judge two of the SGAE partners who were investigated.
The law has already changed. The internal regulations of the entity as well. The court case has ended. Maybe the wheel will finally fall into oblivion. It has been established that it was not a criminal plot. Difficult to define what it was. Many of those symphonies, as the cars remember, were broadcast in the background of late-night tarot and horoscope programs. Maybe now, at least, a calmer future for the SGAE is in the cards.