France

[FR] New Agreements between YouTube and Collective Management Societies

IRIS 2011-1:1/29

Amélie Blocman

Légipresse

A month after signing an agreement with SACEM (see IRIS 2010-10/32), YouTube has now done the same with three other collective management societies - SACD (Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques), SCAM (Société Civile des Auteurs Multimedia), and ADAGP (Société des Auteurs dans les Arts Graphiques et Plastiques). These societies represent a wide range of authors, creators, screenwriters and directors of fiction works and documentaries, visual artists, architects, writers, playwrights, etc., to whom YouTube will pay a fee when distributors and producers use their work on the platform. Google’s subsidiary has no desire to be restricted to amateur videos, and needs short films, music clips and TV series in order to attract more advertising. As a result, YouTube has signed a partnership agreement with ARTE covering the showing of full-length cinema films and documentaries, and has to observe the rules governing copyright and royalties in doing so. The agreements apply for all the works used on YouTube since it was launched in France in 2007 and will continue to apply until 2013. The financial aspects are confidential, but Pascal Rogard, SACD’s Chairman, has said that they involve YouTube paying a percentage of its turnover, the actual figure to be negotiated, to the collective management companies, which will then be required to pay royalties to their members, in a more or less equal fashion initially. At the same time, the collective management companies are looking for new models for the customised remuneration of royalties, so that everyone receives “a fair share”, he added. YouTube is also constantly innovative in helping artistes to protect and manage their rights on the platform. ID Content technology has been developed to enable artistes and the beneficiaries of audiovisual works to identify and manage their creations on the platform. Using this technology, beneficiaries are able to tell YouTube how to recognise their content automatically so that it can be blocked, broadcast or monetised. As a result, the vast majority of artistes now authorise YouTube to keep their creations on-line and to sell advertising around their videos, the revenue being shared with the beneficiaries. These agreements should put a stop to the legal battles that have been raging between the beneficiaries and the platform.