Neighbouring rights: What are they and how do they affect you?
By Nick Krewen
This article, written in 2007, refers to the Neighbouring Rights Collective of Canada (NRCC), which has since changed its name to Re:Sound
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Welcome to the only branch of music copyright that doesn’t apply to composition.
Since it was passed in 1997 by the federal government, neighbouring rights is the only aspect of Canadian copyright law that bypasses both composer and author, addressing instead the contributions to a recording of session players, singers, performers and record companies.
Neighbouring rights, which is recognized, implemented and practiced in over 80 nations, extends copyright protection of published sound recordings to performers and record companies, and entitles them to receive equitable royalty remuneration for the public performance or communication to the public by telecommunication of their recordings in Canada.
There are five performer and “maker” organizations that distribute these royalties to eligible recipients. On the performance side, there’s the American Federation of Musicians (AFM), the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists’ Performing Rights Society (ACTRA) and La Société de gestion collective de l’Union des artistes (ArtistI). On behalf of the makers, there’s the Audio-Video Licensing Agency (AVLA) and La Société de gestion collective des droits des producteurs de phonogrammes et vidéogrammes du Québec (SOPROQ).
The organization that administers, collects, files and enforces the tariffs associated with these rights — as granted by the Copyright Act and on behalf of the five associations that form its membership — is the Neighbouring Rights Collective of Canada (NRCC). Founded in 1997 and a member of the Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC), the non-profit NRCC collects neighbouring-rights royalties from commercial radio stations, CBC Radio, pay-audio services and background-music supply and use (the latter tariff excludes music used for either live entertainment or to accompany fitness activities).
NRCC president Diana Barry says her organization has filed two new tariffs with the Copyright Board of Canada: one for live events and another for dance and fitness activities. “We’re heading into hearings on multi-channel subscription radio, which is basically satellite radio, in which we’re participating with SOCAN,” says Barry. The NRCC also redistributes private-copying tariff revenues to performers and record companies from manufacturers and importers of blank audio-recording media.
The neighbouring-rights fund that the NRCC distributes is a substantial chunk of coin. Barry estimates that the 2007 distribution pool alone will amount to more than $13-million. A pending Copyright Board decision regarding the Commercial Radio Tariff could add another $4-million into the coffers.
So how do you determine your eligibility? If you perform on or own a recording that was made by a record company headquartered in Canada or in another country that’s a signatory to the Rome Convention, the 1961 international treaty that
- protects the rights of performers, producers of “phonograms” and broadcasting organizations, or
- recorded in Canada or another Rome Convention country. Rome Convention countries now total 83.
That, incidentally, excludes the No. 1 music market in the world: the United States. But although the U.S. isn’t a signatory to the Rome Convention, that doesn’t necessarily preclude Americans from receiving this Canadian benefit as long as the previously mentioned conditions apply.
To collect neighbouring rights, the onus is on you to register with one of the five collectives that are members of NRCC, although you need not be an actual member of one of those organizations. “A lot of people I work with are not members of the AFM,” says Andrew Karis, AFM Canada’s neighbouring-rights and new-use administrator. “If you’re a performer, you should sign on with one of the collectives, submit a list of repertoire and sign a form authorizing the AFM — or whatever organization you choose — to collect.”
Payments are split equally between performers and makers (but featured performers get more of the performer share), with radio stations paying amounts set out in The Canada Gazette, as certified by the Copyright Board. Visit www.resound.ca for more details.
Karis says neighbouring-rights remuneration has made a substantial impact on performers. “The occasional background performer who plays on a lot of records does quite well.”
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