Europe

This page is under construction. It will deal with selected major copyright collecting societies in Europe.

The status of collective administration bodies is recognised in European Union community law and national law. A Brussels-based umbrella body - GESAC - was established in 1990 and encompasses 24 of the largest societies in the EU, Norway and Switzerland. GESAC represents around 480,000 authors and other rightsholders in the area of music, the visual arts, literary and dramatic works, audiovisual production and music publishers.

     UK

In the UK there are around twenty collecting societies for various rights. They include -

Authors Licencing & Collecting Society (ALCS) - handles collective rights administration for writers and their publishers

Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) - represents the interests of rights owners over the copying of books, journals, magazines and periodicals. The Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA) licences the copying of newspaper cuttings

Directors' and Producers' Rights Society (DPRS) - representing film and video directors

Performing Right Society (PRS) - performing and broadcasting rights by composers and music publishers. The PRS receives a fee whenever a piece of music is performed commercially or broadcast, with that royalty being paid to the composer and/or publisher of the work

Performing Artists' Media Rights Association (PAMRA) - a collecting society for performers in the UK

Designers' & Artists' Copyright Society (DACS) - the copyright and collecting society for visual artists in the UK

Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) - licenses the mechanical right (the right to record) as the agent of composers, lyricists and music publishers. Anyone recording a piece of music must obtain a license from the MCPS and pay royalties on the sale of recordings

Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL) - the collecting society for around 2,500 record companies, licensing the public performance and broadcasting rights of those companies as the owners of the copyright in sound recordings

Video Performance Ltd (VPL) - performs the same task as PPL but for music videos

Since 1998 the 'MCPS/PRS Alliance' has jointly administered performance and mechanical rights, on the model of the APRA-AMCOS relationship.

Anthony McCann's 2002 thesis Beyond the Commons - The Expansion of the Irish Music Rights Organisation, The Elimination of Uncertainty, and the Politics of Enclosure explores how a recently established Eire body (IMRO) has moved from demonisation to general acceptance.









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