COPYRIGHT ON SHOW

An insight into rights clearance obstacles in the live performance sector

ISSUE #2: PERfORmING ONlINE

EuropE is charactErizEd by a very high concentration of performing arts organisations. in this regard, it isthe world leader in this sector. Theatre and dance companies, music groups, venues, festivals and other organisa-tions within the performing arts allow European citizens to access and enjoy culture - 100% made in Europe. how-ever, there are barriers when it comes to bringing a creative production on stageand offering performances via online services. One of the biggest obstacles currently facing Europe’s live perform-ance sector is copyright clearance.

Live performance organisations pri-marily act as users of copyright and related rights, producing or hosting a live production. The rights for the use of texts, music, photographies, videos, visual arts, choreographies, and the light or set design have to be cleared before a performance can be staged. The organisation concerned has to go through a complex and time-consum-ing rights clearance process, dealing with a multitude of different right hold-ers, respectively the collecting societies or publishers responsible.

Performing online

WhEn onLinE sErvicEs are involved in the performing arts sector, the rights clearance process gets increasingly complicated and new adminis-trative and legal hurdles must be overcome. Legislation at national level still remains blurred -it urgently requires coordination at Eu level in order to create a digital single market.

online services facilitate access to culture for a wider audience. Live performance organisations make use of the digital world to provide these new services to consumers, be they recordings, (live) broadcasts, advertising cam-paigns and online archives.

online archives in particular are of great help for the training of art-ists, as well as for educational and scientific purposes: consider the recording of a dance company’s work, a specific choreography, an opera or theatre play.

Arts Flo MediA presents a rich online archive and a documentary collection of the vocal and instrumental ensemble les Arts Florissants, dedi-cated to the performance of Baroque music on original instruments.

On the webpage, launched in 2010, one can find scores, texts, a sound archive, a video library and photos. today, all material is accessible for free for non-commercial use. previously, huge amounts of rights had to be cleared.

in order to get all the rights cleared for the online world, Arts Flo Media negotiated with:

more than 400 artists to ask them to grant their rights. as the aim of the site was to establish an archive for non-commercial use, all the artists agreed to waive their right of remuneration.Public audiovisual bodies and broadcasters, such as ina (institut na-tional de l’audiovisuel) and radio France.Producers, such as cd companies, photographers, musicologists, au-thors of texts, translators

preparing for launch took more than two years; even today, negotiations continue with venues and a collecting society on copyrights and related rights.

Even after a diligent search, some artists who participated in a recording remain undiscovered. Arts Flo Media committed itself to immediately remove certain copyrighted materials from the website, in case one of these artists ob-jects to a publication online.

The online archive arts flo media

***

Rights to be cleared in total Scores Texts Audio excerps Video excerps Photo albums

893 84 261 111 99 338*

*with a total of some 10.000 photos

in ordEr to EncouragE access to culture and increased consump-tion of live performances online, pearle* urges Eu policy makers to undertake a reform of European copyright law without delay. in doing so, the following recommendations by the live performance sector should be taken into account:

in the light of new online services which could be developed by per-forming arts organisations, the scope of the green paper on the online distri-bution of audiovisual works and the proposal for a directive on orphan works must be broadened to include the performing arts sector.

did you know…Within the european Union, only performing arts organisations in Germany

benefit from a neighbouring right, the so-called “producer’s right”. it gives them the right to record their production, to reproduce audio recordings and videos, to distribute them and to license their re-use or audiovisual dissemination.

* Flexible one-stop-shop

for Europe wide online services

* Fair dispute resolution mechanisms

and special arbitration

* reduction of administrative fees

and service-orientated management of collective rights

* Easing the administrative burdens to clear rights

* Legal certainty for the use of orphan works

*

Policy requests

— PeaRle* — ‘performing arts Employers Associations League Europe’

WHO We aRe

Anita DebaereDirector

anita@pearle.ws

CONTACT DETAIlS

Sainctelettesquare 19/61000 Brussels

Phone : +32-2-203.62.96Fax : +32-2-201.17.27

www.pearle.ws

Silke lalvani EU policy advisersilke@pearle.ws

pearle* is the European trade federation of performing arts organisations. pearle* represents through its members associations more than 4,500 theatres, theatre production companies, orchestras and music ensembles, opera houses,

ballet and dance companies, festivals, and other organisations within the performing arts sector across Europe.

The live performance sector is estimated to employ more than 3 million people. it is a vector for economy in related industries such as design,

fashion, music industry (recording companies), crafts, instrument making, stage, architecture, facility management, tourism, printing and advertising.

practics promotes and supports cross-border mobility of artists and other cultural professionals in Eu countries in order to exchange best practices, increase coordination and networking within the cultural sector and provide information easy to access.

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Credits photos, first page, from top to bottom : 1 – © Eric Larrayadieu 2 – © Marco Borggreve 3 – BL!NDMAN – Eclectic © Jelle Aerts (2010) 4 – © Le poème harmonique