Copyrights can either be licensed or assigned by the owner of the copyright. A copyright collective (also known as a copyright society, copyright collecting agency, licensing agency or copyright collecting society or collective management organization) is a
non-governmental body created by
copyright law
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...
or private agreement which licenses copyrighted works on behalf of the authors and engages in
collective rights management
Collective rights management is the licensing of copyright and related rights by organisations acting on behalf of rights owners. Collective management organisations (CMOs), sometimes also referred to as collecting societies, typically represent ...
. Copyright societies track all the events and venues where copyrighted works are used and ensure that the copyright holders listed with the society are remunerated for such usage. The copyright society publishes its own tariff scheme on its websites and collects a nominal administrative fee on every transaction.
Copyright societies evolved out of the need to have an organised body for licensing and managing copyrighted works. Without copyright societies, it would be impossible for users like restaurants, malls and large events to collect licenses from individual copyright holders and negotiate terms with them. Copyright societies negotiate prices and create tariffs on behalf of the authors that they represent and offset the imbalance of power between the users and the copyright holders. The lobbying power of copyright societies is especially important in industries like the music industry, where authors and owners of copyright are often placed at a disadvantage. The music streaming revolution was also projected as an attack on the power imbalance in the music industry. The evolution of technology and influence of music aggregators like Spotify, Apple Music and Pandora are changing the existing system of copyright licensing and might make copyright societies obsolete.
While the system of copyright societies is similar in all countries, their influence over the industry and mode of operation varies from country to country.
Functions
Copyright societies operate by acquiring the right to license works from the owners and then negotiating and licensing the works to others. They usually operate in one particular industry and try to acquire the works of all the authors dealing in that particular industry. The tariffs decided by copyright societies are based on the kind of event or venue of the licensee and usually allow the licensee to access the entire repertoire of works available with the copyright society. The royalty distributed to the owners is based on their market influence and demand for their works. Reduction of transaction costs and other benefits of collective management can be realised only when the copyright society has control over all or most of the copyrighted works in a particular industry.
In countries
Copyright law is territorial in nature, but copyrights are protected in multiple countries through international instruments such as the
Berne Convention
The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, usually known as the Berne Convention, was an international assembly held in 1886 in the Swiss city of Bern by ten European countries with the goal to agree on a set of leg ...
and the
TRIPS Agreement
The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is an international legal agreement between all the member nations of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It establishes minimum standards for the regulation by nat ...
. Along with licensing, copyright societies monitor the use of copyrighted works assigned to them and ensure that the copyright holders are fairly remunerated for such use. In order to monitor the use of copyrighted works abroad, societies enter into MoUs or international licensing agreements with their foreign counterparts in the industry and exchange information regarding the use of copyrighted materials.
Collecting societies can sell blanket licences, which grant the right to perform their catalogue for a period of time. Such a licence might for example provide a broadcaster with a single annual authorisation encompassing thousands of songs owned by thousands of composers, lyricists and publishers. The societies also sell individual licenses for users who reproduce and distribute music. For example,
Apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...
must submit the download reports for the
iTunes Store
The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...
, which are used to determine their royalty payments.
This acquisition is guided by the legal regime of the country. Some jurisdictions, such as Hungary, create legal monopolies, and ''de facto'' monopolies arise in others.
[Supra note 1, at p. 7] Once rights are acquired, the copyright collective then has to collect data of uses of copyrighted works. The processing of this data will enable the copyright collective to discharge its functions, including the detection of unauthorized use, negotiation of licenses, collection of remuneration and distribution of collected remuneration amongst the members of the copyright collective on the basis of collected data.
European Union
Copyright collecting societies in the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
usually hold monopolies in their respective national markets.
Some countries create a statutory monopoly, while others recognise effective monopolies through regulations.
Austria
In Austria the Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers (', AKM) has a statutory monopoly.
Germany
German law recognizes
GEMA as an effective monopoly, and the burden of proof is on an accused infringer that a work is not managed by GEMA.
GEMA has one of the most effective and lucrative music copyright administration systems.
Hungary
Hungary operates a legal monopoly.
Italy
SIAE
SIAE ( en, Italian Society of Authors and Publishers, Italian: Società Italiana degli Autori ed Editori) is the Italian copyright collecting agency. Founded in 1882 in the Kingdom of Italy, it is the monopolist intermediary between the author ...
( en, Italian Society of Authors and Publishers, Italian: Società Italiana degli Autori ed Editori) is the
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
copyright collecting agency. Founded in 1882 in the
Kingdom of Italy
The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to ...
, it is the monopolist intermediary between the authors of musical tracks and consumers, managing the economic aspects and the distribution of money from
royalties
A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset o ...
of Italian-copyrighted music to authors and on their behalf.
The Netherlands
BUMA/STEMRA BUMA/STEMRA are two private organisations in the Netherlands, the Buma Association ( Dutch: ''Vereniging Buma'') and the Stemra Foundation ( Dutch: ''Stichting Stemra'') that operate as one single company that acts as the Dutch collecting society fo ...
are two private organisations in the
Netherlands
)
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, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
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, the Buma Association (
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
: ''Vereniging Buma'') and the Stemra Foundation (
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
: ''Stichting Stemra'') that operate as one single company that acts as the Dutch
collecting society
Copyrights can either be licensed or assigned by the owner of the copyright. A copyright collective (also known as a copyright society, copyright collecting agency, licensing agency or copyright collecting society or collective management organiz ...
for
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and Defi ...
s and
music publisher
A music publisher is a type of publisher that specializes in distributing music. Music publishers originally published sheet music. When copyright became legally protected, music publishers started to play a role in the management of the intellect ...
s.
India
Copyright Societies in India have to register themselves under section 33 of the Copyright Act of 1957. In order to do the business of issuing or granting license in respect of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works incorporated in a cinematograph films or sound recordings it is necessary that the organization be registered as a copyright society under Section 33. The proviso to section 33 sub clause 3 states ''‘Provided that the Central Government shall not ordinarily register more than one copyright society to do business in respect of the same class of works’.'' This effectively creates a monopoly and mandates that only one copyright society can exist in a particular industry. This ensures concentration of bargaining power and equal terms of royalty in an industry.
Copyright societies have to renew their registration under section 33 every five years and its registration can be cancelled at any time if the central government feels like it is being managed in a manner detrimental to the interests of the authors and other owners of the copyright. The major copyright societies in India are The Indian Performing Right Society Limited
PRS(for composers and publishers),
Indian Reprographic Right Organisation RRO A Rent Repayment Order (RRO) is an order in the United Kingdom that allows a tenant or local authority to reclaim rent or housing benefit where a landlord rents out an unlicensed property such as a House in multiple occupation (HMO).
Rent Repayme ...
(for literary organisations) and Indian Singers Rights Association
SRA SRA may refer to:
* SRA0 to SRA4, standard paper sizes defined by ISO 217
* Satanic ritual abuse
* SRa or SRA, a type of semiregular variable star
* Senior Airman (SrA), a US Air Force rank
* Septic Reserve Area, for a septic drain field
* The Nat ...
(for performers).
Phonographic Performance Limited
Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL) is a British music copyright collective. It is a private limited company that is registered in the UK. PPL was founded by Decca Records and EMI and incorporated on 12 May 1934, and undertakes collective ...
PL(for producers) was previously registered as a copyright society under S.33 of the Copyright Act but now mentions on its website that it licenses and transfers copyrights under S.18 and S.30 and functions as a company registered under the
Companies Act 2013
The Companies Act 2013 is an Act of the Parliament of India on Indian company law which regulates incorporation of a company, responsibilities of a company, directors, dissolution of a company. The 2013 Act is divided into 29 chapters containing ...
. PPL represents producers and record companies and is a major licensor of music to events and establishments. The ISRA and IPRS are registered copyright societies under S. 33 of the Copyright Act 1957. ISRA represents the interests of singers and aims to protect performer's rights as enshrined in S.38 and S.38A of the Copyrights Act 1957. IPRS represents composers, lyricists and publishers of music in India and is a registered copyright society under S.33 of the Copyright Act 1957.
The Screenwriters Association of India
RAI
RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...
earlier known as
Film Writers Association
The Screenwriters Association (formerly Film Writers' Association) is a labour union based in Mumbai, India. Members are authors, novelists, playwrights, and journalists who work in films, TV, and digital media. Members of SWA can register thei ...
represents the interests of lyricists, screenwriters and novelists. It applied for becoming a copyright society in 2017 but is currently operating as a trade union representing its members. Recently an application for registration under S.33 was made by the Recorded Music Performance ltd which controls public performance and broadcasting rights of sound recordings of its member companies. RMPL has applied for registration as PPL is no longer operating as a copyright society under S.33 of the Copyrights Act 1957. The validity of PPL operating as a company has been debated and was considered by the 2014 case of ''Leopold cafe v. Novex Communication'' in which the Bombay High Court that s.30 of the Copyright Act 1957 allows a duly authorised agent to issue licenses on behalf of authors and other owners, therefore organisations can perform the activities of a copyright society without being registered under S.33 but it will not be referred to as a copyright society and cannot issue licenses in its own name. PPL now operates as a Copyrights Organisation
ROand can only issue licenses as an agent, therefore it must issue licenses in the name of the copyright owners and not itself.
United Kingdom
See
Copyright Licensing Agency
The Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) is a UK non-profit organisation established in 1983 to perform collective licensing on behalf of its members the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS), Publishers' Licensing Services(PLS), the ...
,
Phonographic Performance Limited
Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL) is a British music copyright collective. It is a private limited company that is registered in the UK. PPL was founded by Decca Records and EMI and incorporated on 12 May 1934, and undertakes collective ...
, and
PRS for Music
PRS for Music Limited (formerly The MCPS-PRS Alliance Limited) is a British music copyright collective, made up of two collection societies: the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) and the Performing Right Society (PRS). It undertakes ...
.
United States and Canada
In the U.S. and Canada, groups that provide intermediary functions between copyright holders and performers of works such as music are called
performance rights organisation
A performance rights organisation (PRO), also known as a performing rights society, provides intermediary functions, particularly collection of royalties, between copyright holders and parties who wish to use copyrighted works ''publicly'' in loca ...
s or PROs. Other organizations such as artists' rights groups license and collect royalties for the reproduction of works such as paintings by living or recently deceased artists whose work has not yet entered the
public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work
A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...
. There are also collectives that collect royalties for copies from magazines and scholarly journals such as
Access Copyright
Access © or Access Copyright is the operating name of a Canada Business Corporations Act corporation whose official registration name is The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (formerly Cancopy). It is a not-for-profit copyright collective that c ...
in Canada.
In the US, PROs ensure that rights holders are paid their share of public performance royalties, by issuing licenses to different companies and establishments and tracking where and how often the songs of their affiliates are performed at these public venues. An author can only be part of one PRO, as the five existing PROs in the US have distinct systems for tariffs and payment of royalty as they compete with each other in the market. The five major PROs in the music industry in the US are
ASCAP
The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadca ...
,
SESAC
SESAC is a for-profit performance-rights organization in the United States. Founded in 1930 as the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers, it is the second-oldest performance-rights organization in the United States. ,
BMI,
AllTrack
AllTrack is a US-based performing rights organization (PRO) that represents independent artists, songwriters, composers, producers, and publishers for the licensing and collection of their performing rights royalties. Its members are compensated w ...
, and
SoundExchange
SoundExchange is an American non-profit collective rights management organization founded in 2003. It is the sole organization designated by the U.S. Congress to collect and distribute digital performance royalties for sound recordings. It pays f ...
. In the US copyright collectives are registered companies that act as agents of the owners of the copyright. The websites of the PROs have their
Memorandum of association and
Articles of association
In corporate governance, a company's articles of association (AoA, called articles of incorporation in some jurisdictions) is a document which, along with the memorandum of association (in cases where it exists) form the company's constituti ...
and their tariff policies.
The validity of PROs was challenged in the 1979 anti-trust suit of ''
Broadcast Music, Inc. v. CBS, Inc.
''Broadcast Music Inc. v. Columbia Broadcasting System Inc.'', 441 U.S. 1 (1979), was an important antitrust case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States.
Background
The TV network CBS (also, at the time, owner of Columbia Records) ...
'' in which CBS BMI and said that the tariffs decided by BMI were for blanket licenses and therefore amounted to price fixing. The court held in this case that the actions of PROs were not anti competitive as there was no bar on obtaining licenses from individual copyright holders.
Digitisation and internet based music streaming services have majorly changed the music industry and the US copyright law has changed majorly to accommodate such innovation.
Music Modernization Act
The Orrin G. Hatch–Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act, or Music Modernization Act or MMA (, ) is United States legislation signed into law on October 11, 2018 aimed to modernize copyright-related issues for music and audio recordings due t ...
(MMA) was signed by
President Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
on 11 October 2018 as the Orrin G. Hatch-Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act of 2018. The MMA streamlines the music licensing process in order to make it easier for copyright holders to get paid when their music is streamed online through services like Spotify, Pandora and Apple Music. Songwriters and artists will receive royalties on songs recorded before 1972 and this will ensure that songwriters are paid by streaming services with a single mechanical licensing database overseen by music publishers and songwriters. The cost of creating and maintaining this database will be paid for by digital streaming services and the database and tariff will be determined by an authority created under the MMA. The mechanism provided under the act will determine unclaimed royalties due to music professionals and provide a consistent legal process to receive them. Previously, these unclaimed royalties were held by digital service providers like Spotify to the detriment of the authors. All of this will also ensure that artists are paid more and have a fair mechanism to approach for getting the money they are owed. This changes the scheme of S.115 of the US which governs compulsory licensing and allows the authority created under the act to issue blanket licenses for music to streaming services. While this does take away some agency of artists, there has been overwhelming support for this legislation from the music industry as it will ensure that licensing and royalty payments are transferred on a fair basis.
The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers
SCAP
SCAP may refer to:
* S.C.A.P., an early French manufacturer of cars and engines
* Security Content Automation Protocol
* ''The Shackled City Adventure Path'', a role-playing game
* SREBP cleavage activating protein
* Supervisory Capital Assessment ...
ref> has direct or indirect connections with copyright societies in over 30 countries. Once it receives information regarding unauthorised use of copyrighted works, the affiliated foreign copyright society collects the royalty on behalf of the copyright society representing the owner, and forwards payments to it.
See also
*
Copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...
*
List of copyright collection societies
This is a list of international and national copyright collection societies and companies, also called "copyright collectives".
Global
* Association of International Collective Management of Audiovisual Works (AGICOA)
* Bureau International ...
*
Private copying levy
A private copying levy (also known as blank media tax or levy) is a government-mandated scheme in which a special tax or levy (additional to any general sales tax) is charged on purchases of recordable media. Such taxes are in place in various co ...
*
Voluntary Collective Licensing
*
Copyright collection societies (category)
*
collective rights management
Collective rights management is the licensing of copyright and related rights by organisations acting on behalf of rights owners. Collective management organisations (CMOs), sometimes also referred to as collecting societies, typically represent ...
References
Bibliography
*
Thomas Gergen
Thomas may refer to:
People
* List of people with given name Thomas
* Thomas (name)
* Thomas (surname)
* Saint Thomas (disambiguation)
* Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church
* Thomas the A ...
: ''Die Verwertungsgesellschaft VG WORT: Genese und neue Herausforderungen'' In: Journal on European History of Law, London: STS Science Centre, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 14 – 19, (ISSN 2042-6402).
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