Bijvoet refused to continue to pay for making music available to the public in his salon, and MKB Nederland, the union of small and medium businesses,  supported him in this. Bijvoet aired his complaint against Buma in various newspapers and even in an edition of the television news programme Eén Vandaag. According to Bijvoet, he already pays for the copyright through his income tax, Buma act as an autocrat and maintains a monopoly, the Copyright Act is obsolete, and he earns his money by cutting hair rather than by playing music.

Judgement

The court has now passed judgement on the case of Buma versus Bijvoet. The judge decided that Bijvoet does have to pay Buma for using music in his hairdressing salon. Permission from the rightholders of the music is required if music is to be made available to the public. Buma grants permission on their behalf on certain conditions, one of which is that remuneration must be paid. Bijvoet’s defence that the music was only for his personal enjoyment rather than that of his customers was rejected by the court. Bijvoet’s claim that Buma was abusing its position of power was also rejected by the court.

Correct and legitimate

This court judgement has once again demonstrated that Buma is representing the justifiable interests of authors, composers and music publishers in a correct and legitimate fashion.