CLARIFICATION ON THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE ACTIVITIES OF COLLECTIVE MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATIONS

DEAR AUTHORS, RIGHT HOLDERS, COLLEAGUES AND USERS!

In Ukraine, the process of reforming the activities of collective management organizations continues in connection with the adoption of the new Law of Ukraine “On the effective management of the property rights of copyright holders in the field of copyright and (or) related rights”, which raises questions about the legal status of certain organizations.

Let’s try to explain the main points briefly.

According to the new Law, all organizations that acted in Ukraine before the adoption of this Law should bring in line their activities to unified conditions and register with the MEDT as a collective management organization.

After such registration, the collective management organization receives the authority to collect and distribute remuneration(royalty), but with restrictions and not in all fields.

Moreover, Certificates received earlier, after such registration, are no longer valid.

 What does it mean?

According to the Law, there are 3 (three) kinds of collective management are defined: voluntary, extended and compulsory.

In order to implement compulsory and expanded collective management, the organization, in addition to registration, should receive special accreditation.  Prior to accreditation, it is not able to collect royalties in the following areas:

extended collective management (Clause 5 of Article 12 of the Law):

1)  public performance of musical non-dramatic works with and without text, including those included in audiovisual works;

2) public announcement of musical non-dramatic works with and without text, including those works included in audiovisual works, except for cable retransmission;

3) the right to a fair remuneration, common to performers and producers of phonograms (videograms), for the public performance of phonograms and recorded performances or public demonstration of videograms and recorded performances thereof, published for commercial use;

4) the right to a fair remuneration, common to performers and producers of phonograms (videograms), for the public announcement of phonograms and recorded performances, videograms and recorded performances thereof, published for commercial use, except for cable retransmission.

compulsory collective management (Clause 6 of Article 12 of the Law):

1) the right to follow the works of fine arts;

2) reprographic reproduction of works and their parts (excerpts);

3) reproduction at home and for personal purposes of works, performances fixed in phonograms, videograms, copies of them, as well as audiovisual works and their copies;

4) cable retransmission of copyright and (or) related rights objects, except for the rights of broadcasting organizations regarding their own programs (broadcasts) of broadcasting.

For clarity, consider the situation on the example of one of the collective management organizations – Non-governmental organization “UASRR”.

Until 15.04.2019, the NGO “UASRR” used the Certificate No.22/2015 from 03.09.2015 “On Accounting of the Collective Management Organization”, issued in the name of the Public Organization “Ukrainian Author’s Service” and acted on its basis.

On April 15, 2019, the NGO “UASRR” was included in the Register of collective managemrnt organizations by the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine, and new rules for this organization come into force.  It is unknown whether the NGO “UASRR” will be able to receive accreditation, since only one organization has the right to work in each sphere, and it may, after September 22, 2019, «the one» may be a completely different organization

In extract from 15.04.2019 № 3 from the Register of collective management organizations it is noted that NGO “UASRR” is not allowed to carry out activities in the spheres of expanded and compulsory collective management until its accreditation in accordance with the procedure established by the Law.

Link to the scan copy of the Ministry of Economic Development letter – http://uacrr.org.ua/assets/storage/16/z-reestru-oku.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3MpYW3CIhjZJTGb4rMlOufzCySRoRdzPqCOc4vHKXbs_Kg6y9Bx8JTkDU

So, the NGO “UASRR” is directly prohibited from collecting and distributing in the following areas:

Example Legal Wording from the Register

 

1) activities of cafes, bars, restaurants and other public catering establishments, entertaining establishments;

2) collect royalties during touring and other entertainment activities.

Public performance of musical non-dramatic works with or without text, including those included in audiovisual works

 

1) the activities of television broadcasters;

2) the activities of broadcasters

3) the activities of providers of software services, Internet providers.

Public announcement of musical non-dramatic works with or without text, including those included in audiovisual works, except for cable retransmission
1) activities of broadcasting organizations and providers of program services broadcasting foreign TV and radio broadcasts

 

Cable retransmission of copyright and (or) related rights objects

The postponement in the operation of the Certificate of accounting for a collective management organization (previously issued to the NGO «Ukrainian Author’s Service») is no longer possible, since after the inclusion in the Register of collective management organizations – a previously issued certificate expired.

Thus, starting on April 15, 2019, the NGO “UASRR”  should warn all users about the termination of licensing agreements in the areas mentioned above.  In addition, the said organization must notify the rights holders and international (if any) partners that they are directly prohibited from performing royalty-collection activities in the relevant areas.

 

04.24.2019                                                                                                      SO UASRR

Register of collective management organizations: http://uacrr.org.ua/assets/storage/16/z-reestru-oku.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3MpYW3CIhjZJTGb4rMlOufzCySRoRdzPqCOc4vHKXbs_Kg6y9Bx8JTkDU

 

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