Rights managed by EJI
EJI represents over 650.000 performing artists worldwide, directly or through bilateral agreements and pays out over 2.5 billion HUF per year to its rightholders. EJI manages the following rights of performing artists:
a) Broadcasting and other communication to the public of performances fixed in sound recordings
Under Hungarian law, performers enjoy the right to receive equitable remuneration for the broadcasting or other communication to the public of sound recordings published for commercial purposes.
Remuneration for broadcasting is collected in co-operation with the collective rights management society of phonogram producers (MAHASZ), remuneration for other communication to the public is collected by the collective rights management society of literary and music authors (ARTISJUS), upon assignment from EJI. While we co-operate with partner societies in the collection, the distribution of this and all other remuneration is managed solely by performers themselves. The Rules of Distribution are approved by the General Assembly of EJI, the members of which performers elect from amongst their own ranks.
Remuneration for broadcasting and other communication to the public of performances fixed in sound recordings is distributed on the basis of playlists received from radios, televisions and background music providers, these latter serving various music users from restaurants to shops.
b) Private copying and simultaneous retransmission of fixed performances
Under Hungarian law, performers enjoy the right to be compensated for the private copying of their performances incorporated in films and phonograms that are broadcasted in the programmes of radio and television organisations, included in the programmes of the entities communicating their own programmes to the public by cable, and put into circulation on audiovisual or audio carriers.
Performers also enjoy the right to be remunerated for the simultaneous, unaltered, and unabridged retransmission to the public of his fixed performance broadcast or transmitted in the programme of a radio or television organisation or of an entity communicating its own programme by cable or by any other means to the public through an organisation other than the original one.
The collective rights management society of literary and music authors is statutorily appointed to collect these remuneration for all right owners concerned.
The audio part of the remuneration for private copying and simultaneous retransmission of fixed performances is distributed on basis of the same playlists information than remuneration for broadcasting and other communication to the public of performances fixed in sound recordings. The audiovisual part of the remuneration for private copying and simultaneous retransmission of audiovisual fixations are distributed on the basis of monitoring a pool of television programmes.
c) Making available of fixed performances
Under Hungarian law, performers have the exclusive right to authorise the so-called "making available" of fixed performances, notably when they are made available to the public in such a way that members of the public may access them from a place and at a time individually chosen by them.
Currently, the enforcement of this right is a most difficult task as many of the music platforms claim to have already paid performers through various deals with record companies, despite such deals clearly being in contravention of the protection performers enjoy under Hungarian law. EJI now tries to enforce this most important right of performers by way of litigation.
d) Repeat broadcast of performances fixed by broadcasting organisations
Under Hungarian law, performers have the right to be remunerated for the repeat broadcast of their fixed performances provided that such fixation was originally made by the broadcasting organisation itself and for the purposes of its own programme.
e) Supplementary remuneration for sound recordings falling under the extended term of protection
In result of a recently adopted EU Directive, performers, if their recording agreement with the phonogram producer provided them with a right to claim a non-recurring remuneration, have the right to obtain an annual supplementary remuneration from the phonogram producer for each full year directly following the 50th year after the phonogram was published or, failing such publication, the 50th year after it was communicated to the public. The right to obtain this annual supplementary remuneration may not be waived by the performer and may only be exercised through collective management of rights.
| Please note that the official language of conducting business with EJI is the Hungarian language. Services in English are provided only as courtesy. While all reasonable efforts were made to accurately convey the meaning of pertaining statutory provisions and internal rules, the translation of these provisions should not be regarded as certified. |
