Copyright Review Commission Report - ICT Law and Regulation ...

The licences governed by the Copyright Act may only be granted by the registered copyright societies (except by the ownersin their individual capacities). The registration of a collecting society may be suspended pending inquiry and an administratormay be appointed as a caretaker of such society. The registration may be cancelled by the Registrar if a society is beingmanaged in a manner detrimental to the interests of the owners of the rights concerned.In terms of the Act, the Indian collecting societies are required to: Accept exclusive authorisation to administer rights by issue of licences or collection of licence fees or both; Conclude agreements with foreign collecting societies; May not discriminate between Indian and foreign works; Administrative expenses may not exceed 15% of the total fees collected; Must be under collective control of the members; Frame a tariff scheme; Distribution schemes to be approved by the members; and Obtain audited accounts annually.The registers maintained by the collecting societies are as follows: Register of members; Register of agreements; Register of fees; and Disbursement registers.The details of the annual returns to be filed with the Registrar of Copyrights are: The minutes of the members of the Annual General Meeting; The up-to-date list of members; The tariff scheme; The distribution scheme; and A statement approved by its Board of Directors setting out a full and detailed account of all its activities during the year inrelation to the rights of members.3.4. COLLECTION OF MUSIC ROYALTIESOnly 30% of the collectible royalties are being collected. This is due to the following: The industry is still immature; The level of awareness among users is too low; There is a high level of resistance to payments among the users; There is a significant number of disputed pending cases with the Copyright Board and the courts; and The collecting societies are not yet geared to pursue the small informal businesses.IPRS has reciprocal agreements with 94 different collecting societies around the globe. According to the annual financialstatements for IRPS for the year ended 31 March 2010, approximately 25% of the total revenue collected was generatedoutside India. This is due to the popularity of the Indian music globally.- 137 -