Prime
Use association to manage copyrights
Uganda Batteries Limited marketing director Moses Zizinga explains the features on their product during a press conference last year. PHOTO BY MICHAEL KAKUMIRIZI
What you need to know:
- WHAT ARE CMOS? Collective Management Organisations are member based private corporate bodies licensed by the National Copyright Office to manage rights in copyright works like a book publication, musical recording or film by collecting royalties from users nationwide and distributing royalties to the copyright owners who are usually members of the said CMOs.
Users of copyright protected works like music, films or books are usually scattered over a wide geographical area. This makes it impossible for any single author, artist or publisher to collect royalties due to use of their books, musical records or films from thousands and millions of users scattered around the country.
To counter this challenge, the Copyright law provides for establishment of what are called Collective Management Organisations (CMOs). These are member based private corporate bodies licensed by the National Copyright Office (Uganda Registration Services Bureau) to manage rights in copyright works like a book publication, musical recording or film by collecting royalties from users nationwide and distributing royalties to the copyright owners who are usually members of the said CMOs.
A CMO is a private body. Therefore, its members are responsible for its administration, management and are entitled to be accounted to, for the operations of the CMO.
URSB, the government agency that licenses CMOs, provides general oversight and supervision of the CMOs.
The main objectives of the society should be to protect the economic and social interests of its members by defending their copyright and related rights.
Members of a CMO are mainly interested in ensuring the CMO collects royalties from users usually the public and distributes these royalties to them as copyright owners hence the term “collective management”. Any person who has a right in a work that has been used is entitled to receive a portion of the royalties collected.
In a film, there are several rights holders in one single film production. They include film producers, performers (actors, and actresses), directors and screen writers among others.
Each of whom is entitled to payment of a portion of the royalties collected by the CMO for acts such as broadcasting the film, translating the film, making copies or reproducing the film, distributing the film online, making new adaptations of the film, renting out the film, and any other type of commercial exploitation of the same film.
Even in one single work like a film, or a single song or a single book, there are many people with rights in that one copyright protected work. There are many more people consuming that single film or song or book making it practically impossible to exercise one’s rights in person.
An actor in a film, for example, cannot contact every television station and video library to negotiate remuneration for the use of his performances in a film and similarly it is not practical for a radio/TV station to seek specific permission from every producer, actor, actress, author/writer for the use of a work.
The impracticability of managing these activities individually both from the owner of rights and from the users’ perspective - creates a need for a collecting society to manage rights and pay royalties collected to the owners of the work.
CMOs therefore, ensure that their members get due payments for exploitation of their works by third parties. This encourages more creativity and investment in the sector, leading to wealth creation given the substantial amount of investment in both human and financial resources to create a film, song or book.
A well governed CMO is vital for copyright based industry like film, music, books, and visual arts among others to succeed.
The author is the Registrar General, Uganda Registration Services Bureau.
