Neighboring rights
Also known as Neighbouring rights, Related rights
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Short answer
Neighboring rights, also called related rights, are rights adjacent to copyright that belong to performers and to the producers of sound recordings rather than to songwriters. In countries that recognize them, broadcasters and public venues pay for playing recordings, and collecting societies distribute that money to the featured and session performers and the master owners. The United States has no general neighboring right for terrestrial radio.
Definition
Copyright in a song rewards the people who wrote it. Neighboring rights reward the people who performed and recorded it. They were established internationally by the 1961 Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations, administered by WIPO.[1] When a recording is played on the radio, on television or in a public venue in a country that recognizes the right, the user owes a payment for the recording in addition to the performance royalty owed for the song.
Who collects them
Neighboring rights are collected by national societies — for example PPL in the United Kingdom and GVL in Germany — and are normally split between the master owner and the performers, including session musicians. Because each society pays its own members first, performers from abroad usually need a registration with a home society that has reciprocal agreements, or with an agent who registers their recordings, identified by ISRC, in each territory.
The position in the United States
The United States is not a party to the Rome Convention and does not grant a performance right in sound recordings for AM and FM radio. It does grant one for digital audio transmissions — satellite radio, internet radio and similar non-interactive services — under Section 114 of the Copyright Act, and that income is collected and distributed by SoundExchange.[2] American artists whose recordings are played abroad can still earn neighboring rights in those countries.
Questions
Do American artists earn neighboring rights?
Not from US terrestrial radio, which pays no performance royalty for recordings. They can earn them when their recordings are played in countries that recognize the right, and earn digital performance royalties in the US through SoundExchange.
Are neighboring rights the same as performance royalties?
They are the recording-side counterpart. Performance royalties for the composition go to songwriters and publishers via PROs; neighboring rights for the recording go to performers and master owners via neighboring rights societies.
Do session musicians get neighboring rights?
In countries that recognize them, yes — non-featured performers on a recording are generally entitled to a share.
References
- World Intellectual Property Organization. “Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations.”
- Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School. “17 U.S. Code § 114 — Scope of exclusive rights in sound recordings.”