Illustrating Options:
Collective Administration of Intellectual Property for Canadian Cultural Heritage Institutions
5. Other Collective Societies
The Copyright Act also provides for collective societies, associations,
or corporations that are not performing rights societies or retransmission
rights societies. In general, these other types of collective societies
may administer copyright and operate a licensing scheme for their particular
repertoire of works. They are free to enter into licensing agreements
in any form, but they must offer blanket licenses as well as transactional
or individual licenses for the use of a work. The Copyright Board does
not impose royalty rates on these collecting societies, but does act as
an arbitration panel when a collective licensing body and a prospective
user cannot agree on rates or related terms and conditions of the licensing
agreement.10
The collective is responsible for redistributing the royalties collected
to its membership. Redistribution is based upon specified formulas devised
to obtain fair remuneration for the author. These formulas may or may
not depend on the exact use of the author's work. Depending on the by-laws
of the collective society, redistribution formulas may also ensure that
remuneration is split equitably among the members of the collective society.
In all cases, a certain percentage of the royalties collected is used
to cover administrative costs incurred in managing the collective.
Many other rights-related associations do not issue licenses or collect
and redistribute royalties, but have an impact upon the collective administration
environment by fulfilling a lobbying function on behalf of certain groups,
or by serving as quasi-collective societies. An example is the Canadian
Musical Reproduction Rights Agency (CMRRA), which acts as an agent for
music publishers. CMRRA can negotiate individual licensing agreements
on behalf of its members and can clear the rights to musical works held
by members. However it functions primarily as an agent, and the law of
agency imposes different responsibilities on it and provides different
protections for the agents' clients.11
