Distribution and payment of royalties
Translated from Armenian
APPROVED
by the Armauthors` Authors’ Council Resolution
Rules on distribution and payment of royalties
1. General Provisions
1. The present Rules on distribution and payment of royalties (hereinafter “Rules”) establish the procedure for distribution and payment of royalties collected by the Non-Governmental Organization Armauthor during the exercise of its statutory functions of collective management of rights:
1) for public performance, broadcast into the air or via cable, including by way of retransmission of published musical works (with or without text), excerpts from dramatico-musical works and small form literary works (piece of poetry, short story, etc. – hereinafter “literary works”) and for dramatic works.
2. This Rules have been worked out in conformity with the Civil Code of the Republic of Armenia and the Law of the Republic of Armenia on Copyright and Related Rights, the Statute of “ARMAUTHOR”, the Government Decree on Establishment of Minimal Tariffs for Some Forms of Use of Works, of January 11, 2007. No 506-N, other regulatory documents, and the documents of CISAC.
3. The terms as used herein shall have the following meaning:
Armauthor DB, Armauthor data base – an integrated population of data on the rightowners, works and the rights thereon registered in Armauthor, and other information enabling Armauthor to collect, distribute and pay out royalties to the rightowners and royalty recipients;
genre of the work – a category used for classification of works; a list of genres of works shall be approved by the Authors’ Council of Armauthor;
registered work – a work registered in Armauthor as indicated in the Regulations on “Rule on Registration of Authors, Rightholders,Works and Rights to the Works”;
identified work – a work in the submitted usage returns uniquely matched to the documented work in Armauthor DB within the tolerance range set forth below;
foreign society – an organization for collective management of rights which operates in the territory of a foreign state and has a mutual representation contract with Armauthor;
international data bases, international DB – an integrated population of data on rightowners, works and the rights thereon (WID, CIS-Net, IPI) registered in foreign societies;
non-registered work – a work in regard of which registration requirements as specified in the Regulations On the “Rule on Registration of Authors,Rightholders, Works and Rights to the Works”./ approved by the Authors’ Council of Armauthor of Armauthor have not been fulfilled/;
unidentified work – a work in the submitted usage returns which has not been uniquely matched to the documented work in Armauthor DB within the tolerance range set forth below;
user – a physical person or a legal entity, including sole proprietors, using the works by means of public performance, broadcast into the air and/or via cable by virtue of the contracts with Armauthor;
royalty recipient – a physical person or a legal entity who is not a rightowner and who is entitled to receive royalties by virtue of an contract with the rightowner;
rightowner – a physical person or a legal entity who has the exclusive right on a work by operation of law, by virtue of a contract of alienation of the right and on other legal grounds, or because he signed with the owner of the exclusive right on the work a licensing contract giving him the right to use the work without reserving for the licensor the right to issue licenses to third parties on terms of the exclusive license;
work – a published musical work (with or without text), an excerpt from dramatico-musical work,
Armauthor distribution system – a computer-aided system used for automated distribution of royalties.
statistical data – information on the use of works by Armenian and foreign authors obtained by methods of statistical analysis and developed inter alia with reference to the user returns, Armauthor data base, independent surveys (i.e. Multi Media), user sampling, etc.
Other terms and definitions as used herein shall have the meaning as prescribed by the existing legislate
2. Distribution of royalties
2.1 Distribution of royalties collected in the territory of the Republic of Armenia
2.1.1 Basic principles
1. In accordance with the Statute, distribution and payment of royalties shall be carried out on a timely basis at least 4( four) times per annum.
2. Distribution of royalties collected in the Territory of Armenia shall be effected against usage returns and Armauthor work notification records.
Subject to the stipulations of the present Rules, if the distribution enabling data can not be obtained due to the objective cause or distribution against the usage returns is not economically feasible, the collected amount can be distributed by reference to statistical data.
The contents and forms of usage returns shall be specified in the contracts between Armauthor and the users.
3. In order to be accepted for distribution, usage returns must be filed in due form and contain sufficient data for the allocation of royalties.
Usage return shall be deemed inadequate if:
- it has not been produced in the due form prescribed in the contract;
- it has not been sealed and signed by the user’s authorized representative, or it
has been signed by a party without the right of signature;
- its mandatory information columns have not been filled out;
- it does not state the names of authors and/or the title of works;
- it knowingly states non-authentic information (performer is shown in the “author” column, etc.);
- its font size is less than 12;
If so, the usage returns shall be forwarded to the user for refinement (and deemed not to have been submitted) or the corresponding amount of royalties shall be distributed against the available usage returns or by reference to the statistical data, whichever is more feasible.
If the usage returns is forwarded to the user for refinement, the royalties accompanied by such usage returns shall not be allocated until it is submitted in due form.
If royalties are distributed on the basis of the available usage returns, when appropriate, the user can be requested to assess additional royalties and submit the corresponding report documentation.
The requirements of the present Article can be applicable to other documentation which is to be submitted by the user under the contract and which provides the basis for distribution (musical reference, etc.).
4. Usage returns shall be processed, i.e. its data shall be entered into Armauthor distribution system, only if the amounts pertaining to the said usage returns have been received by Armauthor.
5. The distribution shall include protected works by armenian and foreign authors with the exception of works the rights on which have been duly taken by the rightowner from Armauthor management .
6. Royalties credited for:
- unidentified works and authors;
- non-registered works and authors shall be set aside for three years starting from the moment of distribution.
In such a case, due efforts shall be made to find the rightowners and identify and register the works, authors and rightowners.
Once the work, authors/rightowners are identified and registered, the reserved
royalties shall be paid out in accordance with the established procedure.
If after the expiry of the three-year period, no information required for effecting distribution has been received, the reserved royalties shall be allocated for redistribution on the basis of statistical data.
7. Armauthor can distribute collected royalties with reference to statistical data provided all the following conditions are met concomitantly:
- the amount of royalties received under the usage report is less than five thousand AMD;
- the amount of royalties received per one work is less than five hundred AMD;
- the received amount of royalties does not relate to the works performed on stage (“live” performance).
2.1.2 Armenian repertoire royalties distribution rules
1. Works usage returns shall be processed with reference to the Armauthor DB information on the works and rightowners registration.
During the usage returns data-processing operation, the works shown in the returns are identified and searched in the Armauthor DB.
2. If the work title and the names of the authors information in the usage returns match the corresponding registration data in the Armauthor DB, but the work’s genre does not match, the royalties shall be credited in accordance with the work registration in the Armauthor DB.
3. If the Armauthor DB does not contain the work that fully matches the work shown in the usage returns, the Armauthor DB shall be searched for the following variants:
- works whose authors fully match the authors shown in the usage returns and its title matches on the basis of transliteration;
- works whose authors fully match the authors shown in the usage returns and its title matches given the digits are written in words;
- works whose authors fully match the authors shown in the usage returns and its title in the Armauthor DB or in the returns appear as a fragment (line) of the text of the work.
If one of the aforementioned variants is found in the Armauthor DB, decision on the logging of the usage returns data into Armauthor distribution system shall be taken by an authorized executive officer.
4. If the work shown in the usage returns does not exist in the Armauthor DB, the information on such work shall be entered into the Armauthor DB and Armauthor distribution system on the basis of the usage returns with a remark about the absence of registration.
The amount of royalties credited for such work shall be reserved in accordance with part 6 of Section 2.1.1 Basic Principles.
The reserved royalties shall be distributed among the rightowners (royalty recipients) and paid off after the work is registered in the Armauthor DB. However, the amount of royalties credited for the work shall not be reassessed.
5. If usage returns contains an adapted work and the permission for its adaptation has not been received, the royalties shall be put aside until the corresponding notification from the author of the original work or the contract on adaptation of the work are received.
2.1.3 Foreign repertoire royalties distribution rules
1. Usage returns containing foreign works shall be processed on the basis of works and rightowners registration information in the Armauthor DB according to the procedure set forth in Section 2.1.2 above.
2. If the work shown in the usage returns does not exist in the Armauthor DB, the information on such work shall be entered into the Armauthor DB and into the distribution system on the basis of international fiches received from sister Societies and the data in the international data bases.
3. If the work shown in the usage returns does not exist in the international data bases or the work exists in the international data bases but the shares information is not available and at least one of the authors (rightowners) and his sister society affiliation is known, the distribution shall be effected in accordance with the CISAC rules (Lack of Documentation).
4. If the work shown in the usage returns does not exist in the Armauthor DB and international data bases, information on such work shall be entered into the Armauthor DB and into the Armauthor distribution system on the basis of the user returns. Royalties credited for such work shall be put aside for three years from the moment of distribution.
According to the CISAC rules, information on such works shall be forwarded to the sister Societies (“BLANK BOX) with the view of ascertaining data on the unidentified works.
5. During usage returns data-processing operation it shall be taken into consideration whether the works used were original or derivative.
2.1.4 Specifics of distribution of royalties collected for the broadcast into the air of musical works (with or without text), excerpts from dramatico-musical works and literary works
1. Distribution of royalty collected for the broadcast into the air of musical works (with or without text), excerpts from dramatico-musical works and literary works shall figure on:
- the genre of the work;
- duration of the work in seconds;
- the number of performances of each work (excerpt from a work)
2. For all musical works (with or without text), in regard of which usage returns do not have information on their duration, a 3 minute duration shall be applied.
2.1.5 Specifics of Distribution of royalties for cable re-transmission
The Organization grants licenses for re-transmission of musical works. A cable operator is obliged to provide the list of re-transmitted channels. According to this list the Organization identifies the local and international channels. At the first stage, on the basis of provided information, local and foreign channels are distinguished from each other. The royalties collected through cable operators are divided proportionally according to the number of channels.The royalties collected for the local channels are distributed according to the reports presented by the re-transmitted channels, whereas in case of foreign channels the collected royalties are transferred to the relevant sister societies in the country where the channel is registered.
2.1.6 Specifics of distribution of royalties collected for the public performance of musical works (with or without text), excerpts from dramatico-musical works and literary works
1. Distribution of royalty collected for the public performance of musical works (with or without text), excerpts from dramatico-musical works and literary works shall figure on:
- the genre of the work;
- the number of performances of each work (excerpt from a work).
2. Inthe public performance distribution the following specifics shall be taken into consideration:
2.1 Theatricalized, New-Year party and variety performances
Distribution for theatricalized, variety and New-Year party performances based on a single plot shall distinguish:
- the main program represented by a literary work with a single plot. The main program also includes musical accompaniment if it was written specially for the said performance;
- inserted items represented by the previously created musical works (with or without text) or literary works included in the said performance.
The royalties for inserted items and the main program shall be credited as follows:
1) If the main program has musical accompaniment:
- the amount distributed for inserted items shall depend on the number of works performed in the latter:
1 to 3 works – 5% of the aggregate assessed amount;
4 to 5 works – 10% of the aggregate assessed amount;
more than 5 works – 1/3 of the aggregate assessed amount.
- the remaining amount shall be credited to the main program. Distribution among authors (rightowners) of the main program shall be in the following proportion:
3/4 – to lyric writer, 1/4 – to composer, if otherwise is not provided for in the agreement between them.
2) If the main program does not have musical accompaniment (text only), royalties shall be distributed as follows:
2/3 – to the main program lyric writer;
1/3 – pro rata among all inserted items.
2.2 Concerts (“live” performance)
If in a recital, along with the main performer some other performing artists participate opening the main program, the royalties shall be allocated in the following order:
The amount of royalties due for the works performed by other artists (depending on the number of the works performed) shall be:
- 1 to 5 works – 5% of the aggregate assessed amount;
- more than 5 works – 10% of the aggregate assessed amount.
The remaining part of the aggregate assessed amount shall be credited to the works performed by the main performer.
2.3 Public performance of works per technical means (cafeterias, restaurants, discotheques, shops, etc.)
If a user returns shows that in the reporting period public performance in the user’s territory was effected through the medium of television and radio sets (indicating the names of the TV channels and radio stations whose programs had been publicly performed), the royalties assessed on the basis of such returns shall be accumulated separately.
Following the said TV and radio returns based royalty allocation, the accumulated amounts shall be distributed by matching with reference to the corresponding reports.
2.1.7 Specifics of distribution of royalties collected for the public performance of dramatic and dramatico-musical works (opera, ballet, operetta, etc.)
The Armauthor collects the royalties for Dramatic Works (Theatric Works/Plays) according the Government Decree on Establishment of Minimal Tariffs for Some Forms of Use of Works, of January 11, 2007. No 506-N. The percentage is calculated from the income of sold tickets. Distribution of collected royalties is carried out (less deductions) according to the standard distribution key of every separate right within the work.)
Dramatic Works
Original dramatic work(s)
Prose and puppet play
Creative author's profile 2 and more acts 1 act
Playwright 11% 5%
Director 4% 2%
Stage-designer 3% 1.5%
Costume-designer 1% 0.5%
Composer 2% 1%
Poetry
Creative author's profile 2 and more acts 1 act
Playwright 13% 6%
Director 4% 2%
Stage-designer 3% 1.5%
Costume-designer 1% 0.5%
Composer 2% 1%
Translated dramatic works
Prose
Playwright 4% 2%
Translator 5% 2.5%
Intermediate translation 2% 1%
Director 4% 2%
Stage-designer 3% 1.5%
Costume-designer 1% 0.5%
Composer 2% 1%
Poetry
Playwright 5% 2.5%
Translator 6% 3%
Intermediate translation 2% 1%
Director 4% 2%
Stage-designer 3% 1.5%
Costume-designer 1% 0.5%
Composer 2% 1%
Staging of a literary work in a language different from original
Author of the literary work(s) 2.5% 1.5%
Translator of the literary work(s) 2% 1%
Author of the staged version 6.5% 3%
Translator of the staged version 5% 2.5%
Director 4% 2%
Stage-designer 3% 1.5%
Costume-designer 1% 0.5%
Composer 2% 1%
Dramaticо- musical works
Opera
Composer 10.5% 5%
Author of Libretto 5% 2.5%
Translator of the Libretto 1.5% 0.5%
Intermediate translator of the Libretto 0.5% 0.3%
Choreographer 1% 0.5%
Director 4% 2%
Stage-designer 3% 1.5%
Costume-designer 1% 0.5%
Ballet
Composer 9% 4.5%
Author of Libretto 4% 2%
Choreographer 1% 0.5%
Stage-designer 3% 1.5%
Costume-designer 1% 0.5%
Operetta, Musical Comedy, Musical
Composer 5.5% 3%
Author of Libretto 5% 2.5%
Translator 1.5% 1%
Intermediate translation 2% 1%
Director 4% 2%
Choreographer 1% 0.5%
Stage-designer 3% 1.5%
Costume-designer 1% 0.5%
2.2 Distribution of royalties remitted by sister societies
1. Distribution of royalties collected in the foreign territories by sister Societies under mutual representation contracts with Armauthor shall be effected on the basis of their distribution statements.
2. Distribution statements submitted by a sister Society in hard copy and/or electronic format contain the following information:
- the title of the musical work;
- the name of the rightowner;
- the share (percent) of each rightowner;
- the amount of royalties due to each rightowner in the currency of the sister Society country;
3. Distribution of royalties remitted by a sister Society shall be effected with reference to the distribution statement information and Armauthor Data Base registration data.
4. Distribution statements submitted in due form shall be distributed on, provided the corresponding amounts of royalties have been remitted to the Armauthor account.
5. If the sister Society distribution statement information does not agree with the Armauthor Data Base registration data, distribution shall be carried out with reference to the latter.
If it is determined that a musical work in the distribution statement is assessed an excessive amount of royalties, such amount shall be returned to the remitting sister Society together with the documentation containing data on the work registration in the Armauthor Data Base (international fiche).
If a work is not credited royalties in full, the amount shown in the statement shall be distributed among all rightowners (royalty recipients) according to Armauthor registration data and the sister Society shall be sent the international fiche and shall be requested to assess the required additional amount.
6. In case of finding in the sister Society distribution statement works that do not belong to Armauthor repertoire and/or rightowners from other societies, the respective amounts are to be sent back.
7. If the distribution statement shows the returned royalties that Armauthor has earlier sent by mistake to a sister Society, the said amounts shall be redistributed on the basis of the updated information.
8. In each calendar year the Armauthor takes the responsibility to make available to the sister societies an annual report in respect of the fiscal year and keep documentation regarding its distribution methods updated in the CISAC Distribution Methods Database.
3. Deductions from royalties
The size of affiliation fees to be deducted from the royalties to cover the costs of collection, distribution and payment of royalties shall be as follows:
- For public performance, broadcast into the air or via cable, included retransmission, in case of their reproduction in any material form, among them in audio and visual form, including on an electronic career, as well for the use in digital environment of published musical works (with or without text), excerpts from dramatic and dramatic-musical works – 15%
- For royalties collected in the foreign territories by sister Societies – shall be identified under mutual representation contracts with ARMAUTHOR
- For legal consultation the amount deducted from royalties - 15%.
4. Procedure and periods for payment of royalties
1. The payment of royalties collected in the territory of the Republic of Armenia for use of works of grand rights (play, opera, ballet) are carried out on monthly basis.
2. The payment of royalties collected in the territory of the Republic of Armenia for use of musical works (concerts, broadcast, cable transmission/retransmission, use in restaurants, discotheques, etc.) are carried out on quarterly basis.
3. Payments of royalties received from sister Societies shall be made quarterly (in AMD dram). Remittances to the sister Societies shall be made on a timely basis according to the schedule established by the contracts with the latter. Returned royalties shall be sent to the sister Societies together with the scheduled remittances.
4. Payment of royalties that had been put aside and then credited to the rightowners (royalty recipient) following subsequent identification and/or registration of works in the ARMAUTHOR DB, shall be made together with the scheduled royalty payment.