DEFINITIONS IN COLLECTIVE MANAGEMENT
Particular issues concerning definition of Terms in Collective Management Organisations.
Explanation
Definitions are powerful provisions because they control the meaning of terms used throughout a legislative text and, in the absence of a contrary intention, the meaning of terms in all other enactments relating to the same subject-matter. They have a very strong influence on the interpretation of legislative texts.
PROVISIONS OF THE BILL IN REGARD TO DEFINITION OF TERMS IN COLLECTIVE MANAGEMENT.
Annual Report
A comprehensive report on a CMO’s activities throughout the previous year. Typically, this would include the annual accounts, with collections and Distributions broken down by sector and channel, including a comparison to the prior year; Operating Expenses; a section on governance, detailing the governing bodies and persons who manage the business of the CMO.
CMO, Collective Management Organization
Collective Management Organizations (CMOs) typically exist in a situation where it would be impossible or impractical for owners of copyright and related rights to manage their rights directly, and where it is to their advantage that the licensing of the rights that they own or represent be aggregated with a CMO. The CMO’s authority is typically conveyed by its Statute (if Membership-based), by voluntary mandates, by Representation Agreements with other CMOs and/or by Kenyan law. In most (but not all) cases, CMOs are organized on a not-for-profit basis and are owned or controlled by their members. CMOs ensure that their members and represented Rightsholders receive fair and appropriate payment for copyright-protected uses of their works and other subject matter. CMOs represent different categories of rights, for instance, a Mechanical Rights Organization (MRO), a Music Licensing Company (MLC), a Performers’ Collective Management Organization (PMO), a Performing Rights Organization (PRO), a Reproduction Rights Organization (RRO) and a Visual works Collective Management Organization (VCMO).
Distribution(s)
Payment(s) to Members of a CMO, CMOs with whom Representation Agreements have been concluded, or other authorized represented Rightsholders, after the deduction of Operating Expenses and other authorized deductions.
Extraordinary General Meeting
Any general meeting of the CMO that is not the annual General Meeting, and which can be held at any time of the year. Typically, the Statute would provide for either the governing bodies or a minimum percentage of the Members to call this Extraordinary General Meeting, and there be a minimum notice period to Members of the CMO.
General Meeting
A regular meeting of a CMO’s Members and/or their elected representatives, convened at least once per year.
Licensee
A User who is licensed by a CMO to make copyright-protected uses of copyright works or other subject matter is a Licensee of a CMO. Typically, such a Licensee is responsible for payment of licensing fees or statutory remuneration and to provide CMOs with accurate and timely usage information.
Management Fee
The amounts charged, deducted, or offset by a CMO from Rights Revenue or from any income arising from the investment of Rights Revenue in order to cover the costs of its management of copyright or related rights.
Member
A member of a CMO recognized as such in its Statute, and who may be a natural person or legal entity. Typically, members of a CMO include, depending on the rights managed by the CMO, authors (such as song writers & composers), performers (such as musicians and dancers), publishers, phonogram producers, and other Rightsholders which fulfil the membership requirements of a CMO as well as Rightsholders whose rights the CMO represents.
Operating Expenses
Include salaries, rents, utilities, and other expenses directly relating to the running of the operation.
Repertoire
The works and other subject matter in respect of which a CMO manages rights.
Representation Agreements
Include unilateral, bilateral, and reciprocal representation agreements, signed between CMOs, whereby one CMO mandates another CMO to manage the rights it represents. Most Representation Agreements will include provisions for the transmission of Distributions allocated to the receiving CMO.
Rightsholder
Any person or entity, other than a CMO, that holds a copyright or related right or, under an agreement for the exploitation of rights or by law, is entitled to a share of the Rights Revenue.
Rights Revenue
Revenue collected from Licensees or from other parties responsible for the payment of remuneration for, or related to, copyright-protected uses of copyright works.
Statute
Means the memorandum and articles of association, charter, by-laws, the rules, or documents of constitution of a CMO. This includes, but is not limited to, a summary of the CMO’s role and function, and an explanation of each category of Rightsholders and rights which it represents.
User
The User is a natural or legal person who uses a copyright work or other subject matter protected by copyright or related rights, whether permitted by legal exception or limitation, statutory or contractual license.
International identifiers
- EIDR: The Entertainment Identifier Registry (EIDR) was created by the EIDR Association, a not-for-profit industry association that was founded to meet a crucial need across the entertainment supply chain for universal identifiers for a broad array of audiovisual objects. EIDR uniquely identifies an audiovisual object, which can be used for both physical and digital video objects that are part of the movie and television supply chain.
- IPI: The purpose of the Interested Party Information (IPI) system is the globally unique identification of a natural person or legal entity with an interest in an artistic work across all categories of works, different roles in relation to a work (composer, arranger, publisher, etc.) and the corresponding rights in a work.
- IPI System: The IPI system and database are administered by the Swiss CMO SUISA in accordance with the CIS guidelines and standards established by CISAC and BIEM. IPI System contains the names of all the rightsholders in both of copyright protected works and public domain works. The collation and presentation of the information is standardized according to CIS regulations and supports the documentation, distribution and accounting processes of the member CMOs linked to the IPI system.
- IPN: The International Performer Number (IPN) is a unique identifier assigned to a performer registered in the IPD.
- ISAN: The International Standard Audiovisual Number (ISAN) is a voluntary numbering system and metadata schema for the unique and persistent identification of any audiovisual works and versions thereof including films, shorts, documentaries, television programs, sports events, advertising, etc.
- ISBN: The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is essentially a product identifier used by publishers, booksellers, libraries, internet retailers and other supply chain participants for ordering, listing, sales records and stock control purposes. The ISBN identifies the registrant as well as the specific title, edition, and format.
- ISNI: The International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI) is an ISO standard, in use by numerous libraries, publishers, databases, and CMOs. It is used to uniquely identify persons and organizations involved in creative activities, as well as public personas of both, such as pseudonyms, stage names, record labels or publications.
- ISRC: The International Standard Recording Code (ISRC), built by IFPI, enables recordings to be uniquely and permanently identified. ISRC helps to avoid ambiguity and simplifies the management of rights when recordings are used across different formats, distribution channels or products. The ISRC for a recording remains a fixed point of reference when the recording is used across different services, across borders, or under different licensing deals.
- ISSN: The International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) role is to identify a publication, including newspapers, annual publications (reports, directories, lists, etc.), journals, magazines, collections, websites, databases, blogs on all media–print and electronic.
- ISWC: The International Standard Musical Work Code (ISWC) is an ISO standard, and a unique, permanent, and internationally recognized reference number for the identification of musical works.
- VRDB-ID: A unique identifier assigned to a sound recording or an audio-visual work in VRDB.
Exchange formats and protocols
- CRD: The Common Royalty Distribution (CRD) is a CISAC standard reporting format. It is an Electronic Data Interchange format designed to facilitate the reporting of distributed royalties for CMO-to-CMO and CMO-to-members.
- CWR: The Common Works Registration (CWR) is a CISAC standard format for the registration and revision of musical works. It is built for the communication data relating to musical works and specifically collection shares between publishers and composers in those works.
- DDEX: The Digital Data Exchange, LLC (DDEX) is a not-for-profit, membership organization, and is focused on the creation of digital music value chain standards. DDEX was established by a consortium of leading media companies, music licensing organizations, rightsholders, digital service providers and technical intermediaries.
- SDEG: The SCAPR Data Exchange Guidelines (SDEG) is a protocol to allow two CMOs to exchange between them metadata for the transfer of performer’s remuneration abroad. The SCAPR Data Exchange Guidelines (SDEG) is designed by SCAPR to identify classification of performers such as soloist, musician, conductor, etc.
Industry IT standards
- AV Index: The Audio-Visual Index (AV Index) contains information on audiovisual works. It allows CMOs to document and search information related to musical works used in audiovisual works in listings known as “cue-sheets”. The AV Index database identifies the CMOs managing the cue-sheets for particular audiovisual works.
- Cis-Net: Cis-Net is a network of databases built upon the CISAC’s Common Information System (CIS) Standards. Each database constitutes a node within the overall network. There are three types of nodes: (i) Local nodes, maintained by individual CISAC member CMOs; (ii) Regional nodes, developed by regional groups of member CMOs; and (iii) WID Center, the CISAC database of musical works used by a large number of CMOs. The network can be accessed from a web-based search engine.
- IDA: The International Documentation on Audiovisual works (IDA) index is an international centralized database facilitating the identification of audiovisual works and rights holders. The purpose of IDA is to simplify the identification of audiovisual works on an internationally integrated basis and improve cross-border information exchanges by a local member CMO.
- IPD: The International Performers Database (IPD) is a SCAPR tool to register individual performers and to assign a unique ID for the purpose of identifying individual performers in sound recordings and audio-visual works. Furthermore, the IPD contains information about the mandates a performer has given to CMOs on a territory, period and use type basis.
- VRDB: Centralized system to enable SCAPR-members to more efficiently and accurately identify recordings, audio-visual works, usage of both and Performers’ information necessary to properly run distributions locally. VRDB maximizes the flow of royalties exchanged between the member societies of SCAPR.
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