Administration of Rights by a Copyright Society

In one line

A society may take an exclusive authorisation from an owner, license the works, collect the money, take its costs and pay the rest out. The owner may take the authorisation back.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: section 34 of the Copyright Act, 1957 provides that a copyright society may accept from an author and other owner of right exclusive authorisation to administer any right in any work by issue of licences or collection of licence fees or both, that the author and other owner of right shall have the right to withdraw such authorisation without prejudice to the rights of the society under any contract, and that the society may issue licences under section 30, collect fees, distribute them after deducting its own expenses, and perform any other function consistent with section 35.

Why the law has this at all

Because the society must be able to act. It cannot license unless the owner has given it the right to.

Because the owner must be able to leave. Without a right of withdrawal, an authorisation would be an assignment in all but name, and the society's monopoly would become permanent.

And because money passing through an intermediary needs rules. Collection without distribution was the failure that produced the 2012 amendments and the 2021 rules.

The provision itself

Section 34(1)(a). Subject to such conditions as may be prescribed, a copyright society "may accept from an author and other owners of right exclusive authorisation to administer any right in any work by issue of licences or collection of licence fees or both".

Section 34(1)(b). An author and other owner of right "shall have the right to withdraw such authorisation without prejudice to the rights of the copyright society under any contract".

Section 34(2), foreign societies. A society may agree with a foreign society or organisation administering corresponding rights to entrust to it the administration abroad of rights the Indian society administers here, or to administer here the rights it administers abroad. The proviso forbids any discrimination in the terms of licence or the distribution of fees between rights in Indian and other works.

Section 34(3), the four functions. Subject to such conditions as may be prescribed, a society may issue licences under section 30 in respect of any rights under the Act; collect fees in pursuance of such licences; distribute those fees among the authors and other owners of right after making deductions for its own expenses; and perform any other functions consistent with section 35.

The authorisation, and what it must contain

Rule 54(1). A society may accept an exclusive authorisation from an author or other owner or his duly authorised agent, for the right or set of rights in the categories for which the society is registered, if that person enters into a written agreement specifying the rights to be administered, the duration, the quantum of royalty agreed and the frequency at which royalty will be paid, in accordance with the society's tariff and distribution schemes.