Keywords
Summary

Keywords

Approximation of laws — Copyright and related rights — Rental right and lending right of protected works — Directive 92/100 — Broadcasting and transmission to the public — Equitable renumeration — Concept — Uniform interpretation — Implementation by Member States — Criteria — Limits — (Council Directive 92/100, Art. 8(2))

Summary

Article 8(2) of Directive 92/100 on rental right and lending right and on certain rights related to copyright in the field of intellectual property requires the Member States to lay down rules ensuring that users pay an equitable remuneration when a phonogram is used for broadcasting or any form of communication to the public. The concept of equitable remuneration in that provision must be interpreted uniformly in all the Member States and applied by each Member State; it is for each Member State to determine, in its own territory, the most appropriate criteria for assuring, within the limits imposed by Community law and Directive 92/100 in particular, adherence to that Community concept.

In that regard, Article 8(2) does not preclude a model for calculating what constitutes equitable remuneration that operates by reference to variable and fixed factors, such as the number of hours of phonograms broadcast, the viewing and listening densities achieved by the radio and television broadcasters represented by the broadcast organisation, the tariffs fixed by agreement in the field of performance rights and broadcast rights in respect of musical works protected by copyright, the tariffs set by the public broadcast organisations in the Member States bordering on the Member State concerned, and the amounts paid by commercial stations, provided that that model is such as to enable a proper balance to be achieved between the interests of performing artists and producers in obtaining remuneration for the broadcast of a particular phonogram, and the interests of third parties in being able to broadcast the phonogram on terms that are reasonable, and that it does not contravene any principle of Community law.

see paras 33, 38, 46, operative part 1-2