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

TERMS OF REFERENCESNO’SREQUIREMENTS2. Assess the relationship of collectingsocieties that exist in South Africa todetermine the extent and access inroyalties from public and privatebroadcasters, and how the distribution isdone to artists. The CRC should assess,advise and make recommendations.3. Assess the nature of private and publicagreements that the radio and TVstations have with local and internationalcollecting societies and access howroyalties are distributed and the pattern ofperceiving for local vis a vis internationalrights owners. The CRC should assess,advise and make recommendations.THE CRC HIGH LEVEL RESPONSESWith regard to the performance rights, SAMRO has concluded agreements with almostall public and commercial broadcasters (except DMX). SAMRO is paid monthly and thecue sheets are also submitted monthly. The distributions to the songwriters, composers,publishers, sister collecting societies and agencies of the international recording labelslike EMI are done once a year based on the cue sheets submitted by the respectivebroadcasters.With regard to mechanical rights, there are no agreements between the SABC and therelevant collecting organisations (SAMRO and NORM).NORM has appropriate agreements with private television stations and the relevantmobile communications networks, but the situation with SAMRO is unsatisfactory. Theagreements are not in place due to the confusion around SAMRO’s repertoire versusNORM’s repertoire. Therefore no collection has been made by SAMRO from theseentities. Refer to the CRC’s recommendation on a merger of some of the collectingsocieties’ operations under 1 above.There are no agreements between the local broadcasters and the internationalcollecting societies.The agreements between the broadcasters and SAMRO allow the broadcasters to useSAMRO’s repertoire, which includes all SAMRO’s members’ songs and the members ofall foreign collecting societies with reciprocal agreements with SAMRO. In practice, thesituation is different because the full performance rights liability is paid to SAMRO. Evenif a rights holder is not a member of SAMRO, his or her share of the royalty is paid toSAMRO.Based on the cue sheets, the shares of the royalty fees belonging to known recipientsare distributed to them. In the case of foreign parties, the distribution is made to therespective foreign collecting societies and to the local agents of the multinationalpublishers. The amounts payable to non-members are not distributed until the rightowners are identified. If the right owners are not identified within three years, theunclaimed amounts are distributed to known members proportionately.The CRC’s recommendations are: The retention period for the unclaimed funds should be increased from three to fiveyears. Any unclaimed funds after five years should be taken into the social / cultural /pension fund for the benefit of local artists.REFERENCES TO CRC REPORTParagraph 8.3Paragraph 8.1.7Paragraph 8.1.7Paragraphs10.5 & 10.8Paragraph 10.9- 208 -