13 November 2013

Licences for Europe plenary: GESAC announces new commitment to support the licensing of small scale uses and users at the Licences for Europe plenary

GESAC is pleased to announce today at the European Commission’s Licences for Europe plenary a new commitment to support licensing for small scale uses and users. The commitment will see best practice guidelines promoted across authors societies in the EU and benefit a wide range of copyright users, such as schools, museums and small online businesses.

GESAC, on behalf of the 33 author societies it represents, will today present at the Licences for Europe Plenary Meeting an initiative developed by collective management organisations (CMOs) to simplify the licensing for a very wide range of activities from small-scale users and individuals (e.g. start-up businesses, background music on websites, schools concerts online, wedding videos, small-scale web/podcasting etc.). GESAC is committed to develop “Best Practice Guidelines” in this regard.
This new commitment is in addition to the significant progress in promoting the availability of cross-border music services, which has already been welcomed by the European Commission. Digital music services have developed vastly in the last few years, the market continues to grow, and repertoires from across the EU are widely available throughout the EU, reflecting the cultural diversity of Europe.

Veronique Desbrosses, General Manager of GESAC said: “We welcome initiatives, such as L4E, that facilitated dialogues between stakeholders. CMOs are offering market solutions tailored to the specific needs of the users on a cross-border basis. We plan to launch further initiatives in the near future as result of our fruitful co-operations with the participants of this exercise”.

Background information: Examples of cross-industry initiatives developed by GESAC /GESAC members

Armonia: European licensing hub founded by SACEM, SGAE and SIAE and joined by SPA, ARTISJUS and SABAM. Armonia offers a single point of contact to DSPs for the online licensing of the repertoires represented by the Armonia members, from the first meeting to the effective execution of the license. It has developed tools and guidelines to facilitate the licensing of its aggregated repertoires, and offers full transparency to serve the interests of the Armonia rightholders.

ICE: ICE, whose operations went live in 2010, provides back-office administrative and technical support in terms of work documentation and related services. ICE database contains approx. 16 million copyright records for musical works, including automated registration of publisher agreements (and amendments to these agreements) on shares to the musical works, all on a multi-territorial basis. STIM and PRS for Music employ the ICE as a tool in their licensing, invoicing and processing of music use activities on a multi-territorial basis (and national basis). ICE is consequently an initiative to enable its users to engage in cross-border licensing of their controlled repertoire, with invoicing and processing of music reports against a high quality database service.

EBU/GESAC/ICMP/ECSA dialogue on licensing for broadcasting like services: For several months, the above mentioned organisations representing public broadcasters, CMOs, music publishers and composers are working to develop a forward-looking industry initiative that will set the principles for the licensing of certain broadcast-related online activities on a cross-border basis. The aim is to facilitate the acquisition at a single point of entry, of cross-border licences for a wide musical repertoire, for some of the online activities of the public service broadcasters, related to their broadcasting services while promoting high levels of transparency for creators and publishers for terms and conditions for management of their rights by societies.

Europeana Sounds: A project application made to the European Commission to make the musical works in the archives of several cultural heritage institutions and libraries available on Europeana. The project is still in the process of consideration and has not been officially launched.

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