Belgian parliament adopts new provisions on authors’ rights and collective management in the audiovisual sector

The new law requires audiovisual producers to share the cable rights remuneration with their authors and artists, either employed or freelance.

The text confirms that all collective rights (reprography, private copy, lending, cable, equitable remuneration) must be paid to the authors/artists and that these rights cannot be assigned.  

Regarding other audiovisual rights (such as video on demand) the text remains unclear. The presumption that “unless otherwise stated in the contract the author/artist transfers his audiovisual rights to his producer”, still prevails but is "without prejudice to the fact that authors/artists have to receive a remuneration for each form of exploitation of their works.  The new law is awaiting publication in Belgian official gazette and should be applicable as from 2015.

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