Table of Contents
Have you heard of our Guidance Section
If you are on this page, it is undoubtedly because you would like to find reference information on copyright on the FPS Economy website.
But if you are immediately concerned about finding practical advice and tools to help you solve a concrete problem related to the new accounting obligations of the Royal Decree of 25 April 2014 (French version), we also invite you to participate in the Guidance operation (French version).
What is a collecting society?
Collecting societies for copyright and related rights bring together the holders of those rights. Their size varies considerably, depending on their history as well as on the types of works and right holders they represent.
Below are some examples of collecting societies:
- ASSUCOPIE: authors of schoolbooks / scientific works / academic works
- deAUTEURS: authors of performing arts, literary, graphic and audiovisual works
- PLAYRIGHT: performing artists
- SABAM: authors, composers, publishers (all types of media)
- SACD: authors of fiction works (literary / graphic / visual / sound / audiovisual) and performing arts
- SAJ-JAM: authors of journalistic and literary works
- SCAM: authors of documentary works (literary / graphic / visual / sound / audiovisual)
- SEMU: publishers of sheet music
- SIMIM: music producers
- SOFAM: authors of visual arts
- VEWA: authors of schoolbooks / scientific works / academic works
You can consult the full list of collective societies active in Belgium (PDF, 235.32 KB).
More detailed information on the sector can also be found in the annual reports of the Control Service for copyright and related rights management companies.
Is it necessary to be affiliated to a collecting society ?
It is definitely not necessary to be affiliated to a collecting society for your works to be protected by copyright. However, affiliation has the advantage of making these rights more effective because, among its different functions, the collecting society ensures that the rights are respected and paid for on behalf of its members.
Rightholders can therefore become affiliated to a management society of their choice (or not be affiliated to any management society) and entrust it with the management of (all or part of) their rights. However, certain rights cannot be managed by the rightholder themselves. This is the case with legal licences, for which the rightholder must be affiliated with a management company in order to obtain remuneration. More information is available on the "Control service of collecting societies for copyright and related rights" page.
What do collecting societies do ?
Collecting societies perform a variety of roles, the main ones being the following.
Management of members' rights
Authors, performers and producers can entrust the management of their property rights to a collecting society. In this evet, it is the society of which the author is a member that users must contact to pay the necessary fees in order to , for example, distributing their works on the radio, on television or on a website, as well as in public places (party, shops, waiting rooms, etc.).
Then, collecting societies redistribute these fees to their members.
In this case, affiliation means that members do not have to check how their works are being used, in order to claim payment of the fees from each user. The collecting societies are also a kind of one-stop shop which users can contact to pay the necessary fees. It would be almost impossible to obtain the radio rights or to play music at a party if users had to contact each individual rightholder for the works they wanted to use.
Rights to remuneration
In principle, authorisation is always required to use a protected work or performance. One must obtain the consent of all right holders for this purpose. Collecting societies have established rates that remunerate the use of the repertoire they represent.
These rates must:
- rely on a legal basis
- be fair and non-discriminatory
- contain objective parameters for the calculation basis
- be reasonably proportionate to the economic value of the use of the negotiated rights
Collecting societies report these rates in advance to the Control Service, which reviews them.
The law also states that authors and other right holders may not oppose certain uses of their works. However, they are entitled to compensation for such uses, which include the following situations:
- Authors, performers, producers and publishers may not oppose the private copying of their works and services, but in exchange are entitled to “private copying remuneration”.
- Authors and publishers may not prohibit the creation of copies of their works on paper or a similar medium for professional reuse. As compensation, they are entitled to “reprographic remuneration” or “statutory publisher's remuneration”.
- Performers and producers may not oppose the radio broadcasting and public performance of their works and services. In exchange, they are entitled to “fair” remuneration.
- Authors, performers, producers and publishers may not oppose the public lending of their works. In exchange, they are entitled to “public lending remuneration”.
These rates are determined by a specific Royal Decree. The statutory system provides that the collective management companies must distribute these remunerations amongst the right holders.
Other roles of collecting societies
More generally, collecting societies also work to defend artists.
In effect, they also enjoy a more beneficial position in negotiations with intermediaries and users, when negotiating with them the conditions for the use of their members' works.
