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Intellectual
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     Americas and elsewhere

This page deals with major intellectual property rights administration bodies in the US and copyright collecting societies in Canada and other locales.

It covers -

• the Canadian regime
• Canadian rights administration bodies
• the US regime
• US rights administration bodies

     Canada

The Canadian collective rights administration regime is similar to that of Australia, albeit somewhat more fragmented, with a strong US influence (evident in special arrangements regarding retransmission of broadcasts) and a dash of Quebec exceptionalism.

The growth of collective rights administration was driven by the 1988 Copyright Act, which facilitated collective administration: prior to that time the onus had been on individual rights holders to administer their copyright.

A lucid introduction to the Canadian regime is provided by Daniel Gervais' paper Collective Management of Copyright and Neighbouring Rights in Canada: An International Perspective (PDF). Other aspects of copyright in Canada are explored here in the Intellectual Profile on this site.

     Canadian rights administration bodies

Major commercial and not-for-profit rights bodies are -

Access Copyright,The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency, is the counterpart of Australia's CAL. It represents over 5,300 Canadian writers, photographers, illustrators and 490 newspaper, book and magazine publishers. It is a not-for-profit collective founded in 1988 and originally known as CANCOPY. It is concerned with the administration of copyright in all provinces except Quebec on behalf of authors, publishers and others. It negotiates comprehensive licences with user groups such as schools, universities, government agencies and businesses.

La Société québécoise de gestion collective des droits de reproduction (COPIBEC) is the collective that authorises - in Quebec - the reproduction of works from Quebec, other Canadian (through a bilateral agreement with Access Copyright) and foreign rights holders. It was founded in 1997 by l'Union des écrivaines et écrivains québécois (UNEQ) and the Association nationale des éditeurs de livres (ANEL).

The Playwrights Union of Canada (PUC) is the national organisation for professional playwrights. It represents nearly 400 members, distributes more than 2,000 plays and acts as agent for the distribution of rights and collection of royalties.

The Société des auteurs et compositeurs dramatiques (SACD) represents authors, composers and choreographers of dramatic works. It administers the copyright in dramatic works (ballet, operas, etc.) and audiovisual works (televised mini-series, motion pictures and television movies).

The Société québécoise des auteurs dramatiques (SoQAD) redistributes to Quebec, Canadian and foreign playwrights whose works are performed in public or private teaching institutions to the pre-school, primary and secondary levels, royalties provided for in the financial agreement between the Ministry of Education and the Association québécoise des auteurs dramatiques (AQAD).

The Canadian Screenwriters Collection Society (CSCS) - the counterpart of Australia's AWGACS - was created by the Writers Guild of Canada to claim, collect, administer and distribute royalties and levies that film and television writers are entitled to under the Canadian and other national copyright legislation.

The Directors Rights Collective of Canada (DRCC) is a non-profit corporation founded by the Directors Guild of Canada. It is the equivalent of Australia's ASDACS. It seeks to collect and distribute royalties and levies to which film and television directors are entitled under the copyright legislation of jurisdictions throughout the world.

The Producers Audiovisual Collective of Canada (PACC) is a non-profit corporation founded by the Canadian Film & Television Production Association (CFTPA) to act on behalf of the producers for the management and distribution of royalties deriving from sale of blank audiovisual media ("blank tape levies") and from rental and lending of video recordings.

The Society for Reproduction Rights of Authors, Composers & Publishers in Canada (SODRAC) administers royalties stemming from the reproduction of musical works. It represents some 4,000 Canadian songwriters and music publishers as well as the musical repertoire of over 65 countries. SODRAC's Visual Arts & Crafts Department manages the rights of more than 17,000 Canadian and foreign creators of artistic works. SODRAC negotiates on their behalf the conditions for use of their works for any of the purposes outlined in the Copyright Act. It grants licences for public exhibition, communication to the public by telecommunication and the reproduction of their works on any media, including audiovisual and multimedia. It collects and distributes royalties paid for the right to use their works

The Society of Composers, Authors & Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) is a performing rights society that administers performing rights in musical works on behalf of Canadian composers, authors and publishers. It also acts on behalf of affiliated societies representing foreign composers, authors and publishers. With respect to retransmission, SOCAN represents owners of the copyright in music that is integrated in programming carried in retransmitted radio and television signals. Rather than claiming ownership of individual programs, SOCAN seeks a share of the royalties for all works.

The Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency (CMRRA) is a Canada-wide licensing and collecting agency for the reproduction rights of musical works in Canada. It represents over 6,000 Canadian and U.S. publishers who own and administer approximately 75% of the music recorded and performed in Canada. Licensing is done on a per use basis.

The Société civile des auteurs multimédias (SCAM) represents authors of literary works used in audiovisual media such as cinema, television and radio. It issues licences and administers reproduction rights for a predominantly Quebecois membership.

The Educational Rights Collective of Canada (ERCC) is a non-profit collective established in 1998 to represent the interests of copyright owners of television and radio programs (news, commentary programs and all other programs), when these programs are reproduced and performed in public by educational institutions for educational or training purposes.

The Canadian Broadcasters Rights Agency (CBRA) claims royalties for programming and excerpts of programming owned by commercial radio and television stations and networks in Canada, including CTV, TVA and Quatre-Saisons networks and their affiliates, the Global Television Network, independent television stations and the privately-owned affiliates of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and Société Radio-Canada (SRC).

ACTRA Performers' Rights Society (PRS) is responsible for collection and distribution of fees, royalties, residual fees and all other forms of compensation to which members and permit holders of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema Television & Radio Artists (ACTRA) and others may be entitled to as a result of their work in the entertainment and related industries.

The American Federation of Musicians (AFM) is concerned with the rights of musicians in live and recorded performances in the United States and Canada and other countries, including collection and distribution of government mandated or other compulsory royalties of remuneration that are subject to collective administration.

ArtistI is the collective society of the Union des artistes (UDA) for the remuneration of performers' rights.

The Audio-Video Licensing Agency (AVLA) is a collective that administers the copyright for the owners of master audio and music video recordings. It licences the exhibition and reproduction of music videos and the reproduction of audio recordings for commercial use.

The Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency (CMRRA) is a Canada-wide licensing and collecting agency for the reproduction rights of musical works in Canada. It represents over 6,000 Canadian and US publishers that own and administer over 75% of the music recorded and performed in Canada. Licensing is done on a per use basis.

US-based Christian Copyright Licensing Inc. (CCLI) has an Australian offshoot and operates in competition with SOCAN. It is concerned with religious music from some religious composers, lyricists and publishers used by churches. It issues licences to reproduce songs in bulletins, liturgies and congregational songsheets or customised songbooks, make arrangements of songs and "record worship services for tape ministry".

The Neighbouring Rights Collective of Canada (NRCC) is a non-profit umbrella collective created in 1997 to administer the rights of performers and makers of sound recordings. This is achieved through 5 member collectives: the American Federation of Musicians (AFM), ArtistI, the Audio-Video Licensing Agency (AVLA), the Société de gestion collective des droits des producteurs de phonogrammes et vidéogrammes du Québec (SOPROQ) and the Alliance of Canadian Cinema Television & Radio Artists Performers Rights Society (ACTRA PRS).

The Société de gestion collective des droits des producteurs de phonogrammes et vidéogrammes du Québec (SOPROQ) is a collective created to administer rights due to producers of audio and music video recordings, including remuneration for neighbouring rights and for private copying of sound recordings.

Société de gestion des droits des artistes-musiciens (SOGEDAM) is a collective created in 1997 to represent Canadian performers (musicians) and performers who are members of foreign societies that have mandated it to represent their interests.

The Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC) is the umbrella collective for the private copying levy, distributings funds generated by the levy to the collective societies representing eligible authors, performers and makers of sound recordings. Its members are the Canadian Mechanical Reproduction Rights Agency (CMRRA), the Neighbouring Rights Collective of Canada (NRCC), the Société de gestion des droits des artistes-musiciens (SOGEDAM), the Society for Reproduction Rights of Authors, Composers & Publishers in Canada (SODRAC) and the Society of Composers, Authors & Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN).

Border Broadcasters' Inc. (BBI) represents US border broadcasters (a mix of network affiliated and independent stations in large and small markets along the Canada-US border). The royalties that BBI collects and distributes to its members are for programs produced by the stations (ie the local programming) as distinct from those for network or syndicated programming, handled by other collectives.

The Canadian Retransmission Collective (CRC) represents all PBS and TVOntario programming (producers) as well as owners of motion pictures and television drama and comedy programs produced outside the US. The separate Canadian Retransmission Right Association (CRRA) is an association representing certain broadcasters, ie the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) and Télé-Québec regarding copyright ownership of television and radio programming retransmitted as distant signals in Canada. It CRRA collects and distributes royalties paid by retransmitters in Canada.

The Copyright Collective of Canada (CCC) represents copyright owners (producers and distributors) of the US independent motion picture and television production industry for all drama and comedy programming (such as companies represented by the Motion Picture Association of America), except for that carried on the PBS network stations.

FWS Joint Sports Claimants (FWS) represents major sports leagues teams whose games are regularly telecast in Canada and the United States. The leagues are the National Hockey League, the National Basketball Association and the Canadian, National and American Football Leagues. The programs for which copyright royalties are claimed are games broadcast between the member teams on distant signals carried by Canadian cable systems, except for those for which a television network is the copyright owner. The separate Major League Baseball Collective of Canada (MLB) is the sole entity entitled to claim royalties arising out of the retransmission of major league baseball games in Canada.

The Canadian Artists' Representation Copyright Collective (CARCC), the equivalent of Australia's VISCOPY, was established in 1990 to create opportunities for increased income for visual and media artists. It provides its services to artists who affiliate with the Collective. These services include negotiating the terms for copyright use and issuing an appropriate license to the user.

Société de droits d'auteur en arts visuels (SODART) was created by the Regroupement des artistes en arts visuels du Québec (RAAV) and is responsible for collecting rights on behalf of visual artists (essentially those in Quebec), competing with SODRAC. It negotiates agreements with entities that use visual arts - such as museums, print publishers and audiovisual producers - issuing licences and collecting royalties on behalf of its member artists.

Visual rights administration is also provided on a commercial and non-collective basis by entities such as Corbis, Getty and
Masterfile.

Audio Ciné Films (ACF) is Canada's exclusive non-theatrical distributor and public performance licensing agent for Canadian, American and foreign feature film producers such as Universal, Walt Disney and Touchstone, Paramount, MGM, PolyGram, United Artists, Orion, Miramax, Odeon, Sony, Paramount and DreamWorks SKG.

Criterion Pictures administers and manages educational (Visual Education Centre) and entertainment audiovisual works, including motion pictures distributed by Astral Films, Columbia Pictures, Tri-Star, Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox. It grants licences for the use of those protected works.

     the US regime

In contrast to Australia, copyright in the US has been marked by an emphasis on administration by individual rights holders (which as we've noted elsewhere on this site in practice often means no remuneration of non-corporate owners), competition between rights administration entities and significant activity by commercial agencies rather than not-for-profit collectives. As with Australia there has been concern that licensing schemes are anti-competitive or simply unecessary.

A picture of the overall US copyright regime is provided here. John Ryan's The Production of Culture in the Music Industry: The ASCAP-BMI Controversy (Lanham: Uni Press of America 1985) is an excelent introduction to issues in music rights administration.

     US rights administration bodies

Some of the US bodies are -

The American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers (ASCAP) was established in 1913 by US composers and publishers as an unincorporated membership association under New York law (ie a collective). It is concerned with licensing and distributing royalties on behalf of composers,
songwriters, lyricists, and music publishers for the non-dramatic public performances of their copyrighted work. As of 2003 it had around 160,000 members. Like its Australian counterpart it operates on the basis of contracts with its members (the copyright owners), who authorise it to collect and distribute royalties on their behalf and to police infringements. ACAP began with collection of royalties for printed sheet music but quickly expanded into royalties regarding use of scores/lyrics in commercial recordings (initially 1¢ per copy).

Competitor BMI - initially Broadcast Music Inc - was established in 1940 (primarily by broadcasters) after criticisms that ASCAP engaged in monopolistic practices, price-fixing, and ignored the needs of 'alternative music'. It's activity has centred on broadcast, cable and internet distribution. Its coverage of the rock, country and R&B sectors and concentration on the electronic media means that it has grown to around 60% of ASCAP's revenue. It has around 300,000 members and is concerned with a repertoire of some 4.5 million works.

SESAC - not to be confused with the International Confederation of Societies of Authors & Composers (CISAC) - is another music rights administrator, established in the early 1950s and primarily concerned with gospel music. It is privately-owned. In 1952 ASCAP is reported as having collected over US$17m, BMI some US$5m and SESAC around US$1m. By 1963, ASCAP's income had risen to US$38m, with BMI at around US$15m and SESAC steady at US$1m. ASCAP revenue in 1996 is reported as US$500m, BMI at US$400m and SESAC at US$20m. By 2003 that had climbed to over a billion dollars in the case of BMI.

Copyright Clearance Center Inc (CCC) claims to be the largest licenser of text reproduction rights in the world. It is similar to Australia's CAL. It was formed in 1978 and as of 2003 manages rights relating to over 1.75 million works on behalf of 9,600 publishers and several hundred thousand authors.

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