Talk:“collecting society”

From Copyright Act

The Gowers Final Report.

Collecting societies

5.63 Collecting societies licence rights to use copyright protected content to third parties. They exist to save licensees the time and cost of negotiating licences with each individual rights holder. There are several music rights organisations in the UK, the main ones being Mechanical Copyright Protection Society/Performing Rights Society (MCPS/PRS) and Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL) who collect royalties dependent on the type of music rights required. A broad range of people pay these collecting societies, including music and music video broadcasters, those who play music on business premises and those who provide music services to mobiles as illustrated in Chart 5.4.

5.64 Owing to the multiplicity of collecting societies, businesses are often required to obtain several licences to cover all the rights required. For example, shop and bar owners have to seek multiple licenses to play music on their premises. In several other countries, including France, Germany and Japan, rights are administered jointly. This can create confusion for licensees, who have to purchase one licence from PPL for the rights in the sound recording and a second licence from PRS for the rights in the music and the lyrics. Encouraging a cross-licensing agreement between collecting societies could be highly beneficial to users. It could also benefit rights holders if the simpler process encourages licensees to take up more licences.

5.65 Not all rights holders want to licence their work on a commercial basis. Creative Commons licences45 arose to provide free licences. Creative Commons licences help the owner keep his copyright while inviting some uses of the work: a ‘some rights reserved’ copyright. The project began in the USA, but in recent years country specific licences (including England and Wales, and Scotland) and are now available. Using the Creative Commons website, options can be selected to limit how the work will be used and a model licence is created straightaway which should satisfy the owner’s requirements.

5.66 At present, Creative Commons licences are drafted in such a way that makes it difficult for collecting societies to manage Creative Commons licensed works. Collecting Societies in the UK generally hold an exclusive licence to collect royalties for the copyright works that they represent. Therefore, artists who are members of collecting societies are generally unable to license Creative Commons licensed individual works. This issue does not arise in the USA where, owing to antitrust regulations, collecting societies take a nonexclusive licence to their members’ works.

5.67 The absence of pan–European copyright licences increases the number of licences that need to be acquired because rights have to be negotiated for each state. This increases transaction costs. There are currently EU initiatives to encourage direct cross border licensing for online music rather than through bilateral agreements. Other forms of copyright such as licensing of live music performances do not generally encounter the same issues as they are used in a specific geographic area. The European Commission is currently considering ways of increasing the transparency of collecting society operations and introducing competition between existing European societies.

The Indian Copyright Act 1957 as cited in The ALF Review.

Section 2(ffd) "copyright society" means a society registered under sub-section (3) of section 33

[Subs. by Act 38 of 1994, s. 2]

Section 33(3) The Central Government may, having regard to the interests of the authors and other owners of rights under this Act, the interest and convenience of the public and in particular of the groups of persons who are most likely to seek licences in respect of the relevant rights and the ability and professional competence of the applicants, register such association of persons as a copyright society subject to such conditions as may be prescribed:

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.