Cathy C. W. Ting
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The Executive Yuan passed the Draft Amendment to the Copyright Intermediary Organization Act in a meeting held on 17 September. The Amendment was sent to the Legislative Yuan on 22 September and the version previously under the Legislative Yuan's review was withdrawn. The main points of the Amendment are as follows:
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Changing a copyright intermediary organization to a copyright collective management organization ("collective management organization"), and copyright intermediary affairs to copyright collective management affairs.
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Changing the competent authority to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, and prescribing that relevant affairs are handled by the competent copyright authority.
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Amending the definitions of a collective management organization and of copyright collective management affairs, and deleting the restriction under which only owners of economic rights to works of the same kind can establish a collective management organization.
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Adding a provision that two or more collective management organizations should jointly formulate the royalty rate for collective use in order to resolve the inconvenience caused by separate payment collection by multiple organizations and different methods used to calculate royalties, and that the royalty for collective use should be collected from any utilizer by one of such collective management organizations.
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Including the procedure for change of important documents, such as documents regarding the rate or amount of management fee or royalty rate, in the matters that should be indicated in the articles of organization for a collective management organization.
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Adding a provision that a party subject to an order of assistance in declaration of intention is one of passive qualifications of promoters of a collective management organization in order to cope with the amendment to the Civil Code.
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Adding the requirements for establishment of a collective management organization in order to control the number of collective management organizations: When there are enough existing collective management organizations to perform the function of collective management, the competent copyright authority may disapprove any application to establish a new collective management organization.
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Deleting a provision that a member should not grant or cause a third party to grant any license on its behalf, and adding a provision that license should be decided by a collective management organization and its members pursuant to the articles of organization or the management agreement.
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Adding reference factors for a collective management organization to stipulate the royalty rate: When the royalty rate stipulated by a collective management organization is formulated or changed, it should be published and submitted to the competent copyright authority for examination. The competent copyright authority will be requested to intervene in when any utilizer raises any objection to the royalty rate. In the course of examination, a utilizer may pay the due payment temporarily and its utilization may be exempt from civil and criminal infringement liabilities. Such payment will be adjusted according to the results of examination after the examination is concluded.
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Amending the way by which a collective management organization provides information about its management of economic rights to works: A collective management organization is not compulsorily requested to prepare a catalog of economic rights to works and the standard form thereof. However, it should still make available the information in connection with the scope of economic rights to the works that it manages upon request.
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Amending the provisions regarding the license agreement executed between a utilizer and a collective management organization: If a member whose work is used by any utilizer leaves a collective management organization during the term of the license agreement, the utilizer is not required to pay extra royalty to the member but the member is entitled to ask the collective management organization to distribute the royalty already received from the utilizer.
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Amending relevant provisions by prescribing that a utilizer's obligation to provide a utilization list may be waived by a contract.
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Amending relevant provisions by prescribing that initiation of a criminal action by a collective management organization in its own name is subject to exclusive license or assignment of trust only.
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Adding a provision that fines may be assessed in case of any failure to abide by an order of the competent copyright authority about change of the method to conduct business in order to strengthen the supervision and guidance by a collective management organization.
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