Collective rights management

Collective rights management is the licensing of copyright and related rights by organizations acting on behalf of rights owners. Collective management organisations, such as collecting societies, typically represent groups of copyright and related rights owners, such as authors, composers, publishers, writers, photographers, musicians and performers.

Collective rights management is almost as old as copyright law itself. Collective rights management through a collecting society first occurred in France in 1777 for the use of dramatic and literary works in theatre. The first collecting society and collective rights management in music was established in 1850 in France.

Collective rights management through collecting societies typically covers the following exclusive rights granted under copyright law:

The collective management of copyright and related rights is undertaken by various types of collective management organisations, most commonly collecting societies. Collecting societies act on behalf of their members, which may be authors or performers, and issue copyright licenses to users authorising the use of the works of their members. Collecting societies negotiate the royalty rates and other licence terms on behalf of their members and collect royalty payment on behalf of their members. Royalties are distributed by the collecting society to relevant members, who as individual right owners are not directly involved in the negotiation of the licence.

Other forms of collective management organisations include rights clearance centres. Rights clearance centres are membership based and function like a collecting society, though the individual right owners who are members are directly involved in the negotiation of the royalty rates and other licence terms. So called one-stop shops are a coalition of collecting societies and rights clearance centres offering a centralised source for users to obtain licences. One-stop shops have become popular in response to multi-media productions requiring users to obtain multiple licences for relevant copyright and related rights.

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Wikipedia