the Copyright and Neighbouring Act, 2006 and the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Regulations, 2010.
A collecting societies engage in collective rights management, license copyrighted works, collect royalties to the authors and negotiate tariffs on behalf of its members.
As part of their functions, they:
1. license works in which they hold the copyright or for which they act as agent on behalf of their members for specific uses
2. monitor use of those rights extended to the users of copyrighted works.
3. collect revenue relating to use of the rights.
4. distribute revenues as royalties to members for whom they act as agents.
5. Enter into reciprocal arrangements with foreign collecting societies to collect and distribute local royalties to foreign rights holders and to receive and distribute royalties earned overseas to local rights holders.
Licensing and rights management
There are two types of licenses that societies and their commercial counterparts uphold;
A Blanket licences;
Authorizes copyright users to use all works for which the licensing body is responsible but for a specified period of time.
'Blanket licensing' reduces the cost to consumers, with users paying a single fee for access to the whole of a society's repertoire, thereby eliminating high transaction costs that would be incurred through clearing rights with every individual author, publisher, composer, lyricist, artist, performer and record company.
Specific licences;
Sometimes characterized as transactional licences or individual licences; deal with particular uses of a specific work in a particular context and for a specific time.
Collective licencing applies to a single territory but reciprocal agreements between societies mean that it allows rights holders to gain remuneration for uses across the globe.
Examples of collecting societies in Africa include the Music Copyright Society of Kenya which was recently deregistered over alleged mismanagement of funds, the Reproduction Rights Society of Kenya, Kenya Association of Music Producers and the Performers Rights Society of Kenya. Malawi reportedly has only one collecting society known as the Collecting Society of Malawi (COSOMA) which, as per its mandate, represents the rights of authors, composers, performers and publishers among others; Uganda Performing Rights Society (UPRS) for the audio bundle, Uganda Federation of Movie Industry (UMFI) catering for the audiovisual rights.
Registration of Collecting Societies in Uganda
Section 57 of the Act provides that NO collecting society shall operate in Uganda without a registration certificate issued by the Registrar of Companies.
The Registrar of Companies shall not register another society in respect of the same bundle of rights and category of works if there exists another society that has already been licensed and functions to the satisfaction of its members.
Any person operating as a collecting society or causing any society or body to operate as a collecting society without a registration certificate commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding one hundred currency points or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding two years or to both the fine and imprisonment.
Section 58 provides that the Registrar may register as a collecting society any society or body which has for its main object the promotion of the economic and social interest of its members through defending their copyright and neighbouring right interests and the Registrar shall not register a society unless under the following circumstances:
1. the Registrar is satisfied that the society is capable of promoting its members’ interests and of discharging its functions and objectives.
2. it consists of at least thirty persons all of whom are, according to its articles and rules qualified to be members.
3. the society is incorporated under the provisions of the Companies Act.
Full registration of society (Section 64)
Where at the end of the probation the registrar is satisfied with the functioning of the society the Registrar shall fully register the society as a collecting society. A society shall, on full registration, become a body corporate by the name under which it is registered, with perpetual succession and a common seal, and with power to hold movable and immovable property of every description, to enter into contracts, to institute and defend suits and other legal proceedings and to do all things necessary for the purpose of its operations.
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This is really helpful
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