The Copyright Tribunal of Australia has announced an increase in fees, in response to an application made by the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia - the entity that collects revenue from nightclub owners and dance party operators (amongst other things).

The PPCA's press release contains the details, but the most noteworthy part is this:

In the first comprehensive review of this tariff ever undertaken by the Copyright Tribunal, the Tribunal has lifted rates for licensed sound recordings played in nightclubs from 7 cents per person to $1.05 cents per person. The dance party rate rises from 20 cents to $3.07 cents per person.

Those are some pretty steep increases - over 1400% each by my reckoning. There's no mention of the time period that these costs apply for in the press release, but looking at the PPCA's original document on this issue, these are per night/per dance party prices.

The Australian Copyright Council (the organisation behind the excellent Australian copyright law resource copyright.org.au) have some more information and reference links in their announcement.

There's quite a bit of coverage about this already (including this article on the ABC website) as the various sides try to have their say. Obviously nightclub owners/dance party operators are massively against this - extrapolating the numbers, the cost of operating has just risen dramatically.