related
Guide:

Intellectual
Property

related
Profile:

IPR
chronology

     Europe

This page deals with selected major copyright collecting societies in Europe.

It covers -

• introduction
• UK and Eire
• France
• Germany and Austria
• Nordic states

     introduction

The status of collective administration bodies is recognised in European Union community law and national law. A Brussels-based umbrella body - GESAC - was established in 1990 and encompasses 24 of the largest societies in the EU, Norway and Switzerland. GESAC represents around 480,000 authors and other rightsholders in the area of music, the visual arts, literary and dramatic works, audiovisual production and music publishers.

Fabrice Rochelandet's 2002 Are copyright collecting societies efficient? (PDF) notes the range of regimes in Europe, extending from the minimalist regime in Greece (where rights organisations are essentially subject only to general competition and contract laws) to more restrictive arrangements in Italy, where particular bodies have a legal monopoly, are supervised by government auditors and feature government officials on their board.

     UK and Eire

In the UK there are around twenty collecting societies for various rights. They include -

• Authors Licencing & Collecting Society (ALCS) - handles collective rights administration for writers and their publishers
• Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) - represents the interests of rights owners over the copying of books, journals, magazines and periodicals. The Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA) licences the copying of newspaper cuttings
• Directors' and Producers' Rights Society (DPRS) - representing film and video directors
• Performing Right Society (PRS) - performing and broadcasting rights by composers and music publishers. The PRS receives a fee whenever a piece of music is performed commercially or broadcast, with that royalty being paid to the composer and/or publisher of the work. It is examined in Cyril Ehrlich's exemplary Harmonious Alliance: A History of the Performing Right Society (Oxford: Oxford Uni Press 1989)
• Designers' & Artists' Copyright Society (DACS) - the copyright and collecting society for visual artists in the UK established in 1983. The Artists' Collecting Society (ACS) was established as a specialist collecting society in 2006 to collect resale royalties (Droit de Suite) in competition with DACS.
• Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) - licenses the mechanical right (the right to record) as the agent of composers, lyricists and music publishers. Anyone recording a piece of music must obtain a license from the MCPS and pay royalties on the sale of recordings
• Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL) - the collecting society for around 3,500 record companies, licensing their public performance and broadcasting rights as the owners of the copyright in sound recordings. PPL collaborates closely with the Performing Artists' Media Rights Association (PAMRA), established in 1995 as a conduit for payments to 40,000 performers in the UK. The Association of United Recording Artist (AURA) represented 'featured artists' rather than session players. It collected revenue from PPL for distribution to performers who did not receive fees from PPL directly. AURA is being absorbed by PPL and PAMRA in simplification of what has been characterised as the 'UK Single Pipeline'. Video Performance Ltd (VPL) - performs the same task as PPL but for music videos

Since 1998 the 'MCPS/PRS Alliance' has jointly administered performance and mechanical rights, on the model of the APRA-AMCOS relationship.

Anthony McCann's 2002 thesis Beyond the Commons - The Expansion of the Irish Music Rights Organisation, The Elimination of Uncertainty, and the Politics of Enclosure explores how a recently established Eire body (IMRO) has moved from demonisation to general acceptance.

     France

The French regime, like that in Germany, contrasts strongly with Australia - there are a large number of societies, often very specialised and jealous of their prerogatives. That 'atomisation' has inhibited achievement of efficiencies through economies of scale and through true responsiveness to the needs of both creators and copyright users, with particular societies being captured by cliques and notable for poor practice.

Societies include the -

• Société de la Propriete Artistique et des Dessins et Modules (SPADEM), concerned with the visual arts
• Société civile des producteurs de phonogramme en France (SPPF), society for phonogram producers representing the independent labels
• Société des Auteurs dans les Arts Graphiques et Plastiques (ADAGP) handles works by painters, sculptors, engravers, illustrators, photographers and artists using new technologies
• Société pour l'administration du Droit de Reproduction Mécanique des auteurs (SDRM) manages and collects mechanical rights from national and international producers of recrdings including musical works (SACEM), dramatic works (SACD) and literary works (SCAM/SCDL)
• Société des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Editeurs de Musique (SACEM)
• Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques (SACD) deals with dramatic and "dramatico-musical works" (including opera, dance, skits and television adaptations), works of fiction adapted as a movie or broadcast program, all new works of fiction broadcast by 'new media', interactive games, multimedia works, "virtual reality and networks".
• Société Civile des Auteurs Multimédia (SCAM) covers written works (particularly documentaries) that have been produced for television, radio or film
• Société Civile des Producteurs Phonographiques (SCPP)
• Société des Producteurs de Phonogrammes en France (SPPF)
• Société Des Artistes-Interpretes, a performers rights society formed through the 2004 merger of SPEDIDAM and ADAMI.

     Germany and Austria

The German societies are -

• Gesellschaft für musikalische Aufführungs- und mechanische Vervielfältigungsrecht (GEMA) - musical performing and mechanical reproduction rights
• VG WORT, the dominant literary rights society, founded in 1958. It absorbed the former Inkassostelle für urheberrechtliche Vervielfältigungsgebühren GmbH (aka VG WISSENSCHAFT) in 1978
• GVL (Collecting society for neighbouring rights), jointly formed (in 1959) by the Association of German Orchestras and the German National Group of IFPI (International Federation of Phonogram and Videogram Producers) - neighbouring rights for performing artists, audio-carrier producers, video producers and film producers
• Verwertungsgesellschaft BILD-KUNST (VG BILD-KUNST = Visual arts collecting society) - creators of visual art, photo-journalists, directors, cameramen, cutters, film architects, costume designers
• VG Musik-Edition - a music edition collecting society concerned with reprography rights in sheet music, neighbouring rights in scientific editions and editions of posthumous works primarily in the field of music for scientific authors, editors and publishers
• VG Satellit für Sendeunternehmen (VG Satellit Gesellschaft zur Verwertung der Leistungsschutzrechte von Sendeunternehmen mbH - Society for the exploitation of neighbouring rights of broadcasting companies - neighbouring rights for broadcasting companies, in particular those related to cable retransmission
• Verwertungsgesellschaft der Film- und Fernsehproduzenten (VFF) - Collecting society for film and television producers - independent film producers and broadcasters
• Gesellschaft zur Wahrnehmung von Film- und Fernsehrechten (GWFF) a society administering film and television rights of film producers, television producers, video programme synchronisers, authors
• Verwertungsgesellschaft für Nutzungsrechte an Filmwerken (VGF = Collecting society for exploitation rights in cinematographic works) - film producers and synchronisers, authors, television producers, video programme producers (original and derivative rights)
• Gesellschaft zur Übernahme und Wahrnehmung von Filmaufführungsrechten (GÜFA = Collecting society for film performing rights) - Copyright owners and holders of neighbouring rights including producers' rights in erotic and pornographic films
• Association de Gestion Internationale Collective des Oeuvres Audiovisuelles (aka AGICOA Urheberrechtsschutz GmbH) - Association for the international collective administration of audiovisual works) - cable retransmission rights, mainly for foreign rights owners.

Austrian copyright collecting societies include -

• Staatlich genehmigte Gesellschaft der Autoren, Komponisten und Musikverleger AKM, the officially authorised society of authors, composers and music publishers, specialising in (small-scale) rights of public performance and broadcasting rights for works of music and related texts
• Staatlich genehmigte Literarische Verwertungsgesellschaft (L.V.G.), the officially authorised literary copyright collecting society, specialising in (small-scale) rights of public citation and broadcasting rights for literary works, insofar as they are not texts related to music
• Austro-Mechana GmbH, a private company specialising in the exploitation and utilisation of mechanical musical copyrights;
• Literar-Mechana GmbH, a private company specialising in rights to the mechanical reproduction and distribution of literary works
• Verwertungsgesellschaft bildender Künstler VBK, a society for visual artists)
• LSG – Wahrnehmung von Leistungsschutzrechten GmbH (music labels)
• Österreichische Interpretengesellschaft OESTIG (performers)
• Verwertungsgesellschaft Rundfunk VGR (broadcasting)
• Verwertungsgesellschaft für audiovisuelle Medien VAM (audio-visual media)
• Verwertungsgesellschaft für Bild und Ton VBT (image and sound)
• Musikedition – Gesellschaft zur Wahrnehmung von Rechten und Ansprüchen aus Musikeditionen, reg. Gen.mbH (music editions)
• VDFS – Verwertungsgesellschaft Dachverband der Filmschaffenden Österreichs reg. Gen.mbH. (films).

     Nordic states

In Norway the umbrella organisation is KOPINOR (bringing together some 21 bodies) represents writers, photographers, illustrators, composers and publishers.

Swedish bodies include BONUS-Presskopia (concerned with reprography), STIM on behalf of composers and music publishers, TROMB on behalf of actors, SAMI for music performers and COPYSWEDE for a range of rights holders. Finland's major bodies include KUVASTO for visual artists, TUOTOS for audiovisual producers, GRAMEX for music performers and producers, TOESTO for composers and music publishers and KOPIOSTO (an umbrella body of 21 author and publisher associations) concerned with print and electronic reprography.

Danish bodies include Radiokassen (created in 1925) with responsibility for literary rights in transmissions by the national public broadcasting corporation, KODA (1926) with rights for public performances and radio broadcasts of musical works and dramatic works, COPY-DAN (1977) for private copying, Drama-ret (1938) for performance of dramatic works and GRAMEX (1963) on behalf of performers and record producers.

Spanish societies include the Sociedad General de Autores (SGAE) for music.









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