TMT focus
Mariam Sabet Senior Associate, Intellectual Property
The New UAE Federal Copyright Law No. 38 of 2021 (“UAE Copyright Law”) entered into force on January 2, 2022, where the provisions on the establishment and operation of Collecting Licensing Societies (“Collecting Societie/s”) remained.
Collective Societies were introduced back during the 2002 amendments of the 1992 Copyright Law (to comply with the UAE’s international obligations). Collective Societies were allowed to perform collective management of copyrights provided necessary licenses were obtained from the Ministry of Economy (“Ministry”).
In 2004, the fees for granting and renewing licenses for Collective Societies were specified under a ministerial decision. Finally, in 2016, the Ministry revised the applicable fees relating to the setting up and operation of Collecting Societies.
Collective Societies play the role of intermediaries between the rights owners and potential licensees. Public performance right is arguably the most sought after right. Most users namely hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues are seeking to obtain the rights for public performance and broadcast of musical works.
It particularly serves the music industry given the multiple layers involved for a piece of music to be played. There are usually different right holders involved in playing a song, such as for example, the right holder to the lyrics is likely to differ from the right holder to the sound recording. Potential licensees will need approvals from the different right holders to play the music in public. Collective Societies can act as the focal point of contact for licensing the relevant rights allowing for a more streamlined approach in navigating the different layered rights involved. Simply put, users prefer to acquire rights from one single entity rather than entering into the burdensome process of identifying the individual copyright owners and then still negotiate separately each underlying work.
Currently, Collection Societies for public performance rights are yet to be dully licensed by the Ministry. Users are faced with multiple conflicting entities claiming to be the rightful holders of the rights, adding yet another challenge to an already burdensome process.
A recent development has occurred in the UAE with the launch of the first collective body for reprography rights through the creation of the Emirates Reprographic Rights Association (“ERRA”). On March 3rd, 2022, the UAE launched ERRA as the first Collective Society created in the UAE. ERRA will be part of the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations (IFRRO).
It is important to note that ERRA is dedicated to reprography rights and does not include public performance rights. Reprography is the process of making a copy (reproduction and duplication) of items such as documents, drawings, images, and the like. It includes photocopying, printing, scanning along with all forms of digital reproductions. The activity of reprography is commonly found in educational settings, academic publishing, and libraries. Reprographic rights are the rights used in the process of reprography and are afforded protection under applicable copyright laws and international conventions.
ERRA will be the first collective management body in the UAE to undertake the role of licensing the reproduction of copyrighted materials and grant the necessary authorizations for the use of print and digital works in schools, libraries, universities and various academic institutions.
Although the activities of ERRA does not include public performance rights, its creation is a significant step forward that could pave the way for finally licensing Collection Societies to manage other rights namely public performance rights, mechanical rights of musical works (sound recordings), rights for re-transmission of audio-visual works and many other bundle of rights.
For further information, please contact Mariam Sabet.
Published in June 2022
