BECS Archived News

This year’s Annual General Meeting will be held on Friday 11 December 2009 at 1.30pm in the Run Run Shaw Room at BAFTA, 195 Piccadilly, London W1J 9LN.

The notice showing the formal business to take place at the AGM can be viewed at the end of this article.

Invitations to the AGM and proxy forms will be sent out with copies of the 2009 Report and Statement of Accounts, which are due to reach members in the last week of November. 

With the current postal disruption in mind, members are encouraged to return proxy voting forms as quickly as possible. 

If forms are delayed in the post, members can request a proxy form to be sent to them by email. However, signed forms need to be returned in the post to reach BECS before 10am on Wednesday 9 December 2009.

Please click here to read the notice.

BECS has made over 20,000 payments and allocated approximately £7 million to performers in British film, television and radio productions in its biggest ever annual distribution. 

Due to increasing sources of revenue negotiated by Equity and managed by BECS, payments were issued in two tranches ths year for greater clarity and ease of understanding. 

The first payout in August comprised contractual payments for programmes carried between 2006 and 2008 on new media platforms launched by the BBC, ITV and Channel 4.  These payments were issued directly to the relevant contractual agents.

A second payout covering non-contractual performers' rights payments, BBC cable and satellite retransmissions to Belgium, Ireland and Holland, and BBC7 radio broadcasts is just drawing to a close.      

BECS has written to the UK Intellectual Property Office expressing concern about the current lack of recognition for the moral rights of audio-visual performers.

BECS has also argued for removal of the current UK requirement that performers who want to enforce their right to be identified must first “assert” the right (usually in contracts) before the rights has to be recognised.

The response follows the UK Intellectual Property Office calling for views on the current rules applied tomoral rights (particularly the current requirement for assertion of the right to be identified).

BECS’ response can be found here

As part of the Digital Britain initiative, in July this year the DCMS published a Consultation on the possible extension of the Public Lending Right to rights holders in books in non-print formats.

These non-print formats include audio books.

BECS has responded to the Consultation arguing in favour of the Public Lending Rightproviding for payments to be made to narrators whose performances are included inphysical copies of audio books lent by public libraries.

BECS’ response can be found here

BECS’ response was prepared following consultation with Equity.

The DCMS Consultation remains open for comments until 16 October 2009.

If you have views on the issue relevant to BECS’ response, please contact us

BECS continues to pursue options for the collection of lending revenues due to its members.

Audio-books are particularly relevant to this.

The recent Digital Britain Report included reference to the Public Lending Right (PLR).

PLR makes compensatory payments to EU authors (including writers, translators, editors and illustrators) for the free loan of their books through UK public libraries.

The scope of the primary legislation (1979) which recognises PLR currently talks only of “books” and excludes (by omission) other formats of publication such as audio books and e-books, which are becoming increasingly relevant to public libraries.

In the Digital Britain Report the Government recognised that it had received formal proposals from the All Party Parliamentary Group on Writers to make changes to the PLR Act and was willing to consider these.

As a result of this, the DCMS has now published a consultation on the extension of Public Lending Right to rights holders of books in non-print formats.

The consultation can be found by at the following link http://www.culture.gov.uk/reference_library/consultations/6283.aspx

BECS will argue the case for performers who narrate works for audio-books being included in the list of rights owners who are entitled to receive payments from PLR.

Responses to the consultation are requested by 16 October.

If you have views on this issue relevant for BECS’ response, please email becs@equity.org.uk

Background Information

A new lending right was introduced into European law by Council Directive 92/100/EC on 19 December 1992 (The Rental and Lending Directive).

The new right extended beyond books to underlying works in sound recordings including performances of works included in such recordings.

The lending right applies to non-commercial loans through an establishment which is accessible to the public (such as a public library).

The lending right was introduced into UK copyright legislation on 1^st December 1996.

Tomorrow (23 April), provides an important opportunity for Members of the European Parliament to support a compromise text on copyright term extension for some performers.

The text also paves the way for extension of rights in audio-visual performances.

It provides for an assessment on the impact on any extension for
actors and other audio-visual performers to be carried out, and for a
report on this to be prepared by January 2010.

BECS has worked closely with Equity, the International Federation of Actors (FIA) and AEPO-ARTIS to push the case for the rights of audio-visual performers to be properly considered.

All UK MEPs have been urged to support the compromise text in the vote tomorrow.

The latest FIA-FIM-GIART statement of 16 April can be seen by clicking here

The AEPO-ARITS statement issued in 20 April can be seen by clicking here

BECS responds to latest government call for comments on the future of copyright.

On 16 December, David Lammy, Minister for Higher Education and Intellectual Property, launched a wide-ranging consultation by the Intellectual Property Office on the future shape of copyright.

The new consultation aims “to ensure that the copyright system properly supports creativity, promotes investment and jobs while also inspiring the confidence of businesses and of users (as being fair and reasonable)”.

An 'Issues Paper' was been published on the Intellectual Property Office website to help start this debate. A copy of the paper can be found at: http://www.ipo.gov.uk/pro-types/pro-copy/c-policy.htm

This initial period of consultation was announced to run until February 2009.

BECS has used the opportunity to highlight three areas where UK audio-visual performers need particular assistance to ensure that recognised rights are sufficiently rewarded :-

(a) measures to ensure that equitable remuneration is paid for exercise of rental rights that have been transferred to a producer;

(b) measures to provide for payments for the lending of audio-books and other audio-visual works within a review of the public lending right;

(c) measures to ensure that fair compensation is paid to audio-visual performers from the private copying of their work.

Click for a full copy of BECS response to the consultation

Click for a copy of Appendix 1

Click for a copy of Appendix 2

Click for a copy of Appendix 3

The initial paper is to be followed by a 'Discussion Paper' to be published by the Intellectual Property Office later in the year.

BECS will be involved in the series of meetings and events that are being arranged by the Intellectual Property Office to enable interested parties to debate the key issues and possible solutions.

We continue to work to ensure that the voice of BECS members is heard in this debate.

BECS held its 10th Annual General Meeting at Guild House on Friday 12th December. The AGM was well attended, and members joined staff for refreshments following the meeting. In addition to the more usual business, the members were asked to approve adoption of new Articles of Association which reflected both new provisions of the Companies Act 2006 and changes which would allow the composition of the Board of Management to be increased from the previous maximum of 10 to 12. Following debate over implications of the changes, a Special Resolution was passed “That the Articles of Association of the Company produced to the meeting and marked “A” for the purpose of identification be adopted as the Articles of Association of the Company in substitution for, and to the exclusion of, the existing Articles of Association of the Company”. Please click here to download the new Articles

The European Commission has published a proposal to extend the duration of protection for performers whose performance is “fixed” in sound recordings

The Proposal currently ignores audiovisual performers’ rights.

BECS and Equity are therefore arguing the case for all performers to be treated equally.

Click here to see why it is important for audiovisual performers to make their views known now.

Please contact your Member of the European Parliament to show them that you are aware of the BECS/Equity case and encourage them to support the extension of the term of protection for all performers.

You can check who to write to or e-mail to by visiting: http://www.europarl.org.uk/uk_meps/MembersMain.htm

For further background or information please contact either Andy Prodger or Andrew Yeates at BECS
 Click here to contact BECS

The European Commission has issued draft proposals to extend the term of protection for performers whose performances are recorded in commercial sound recordings from 50 years to 95 years. But the draft proposals suggest leaving the term of protection for a performance recorded for film or video at 50 years.

BECS is arguing that this is discriminatory and unfair. BECS would like to see the term of protection for all performers extended to 95 years. This would mean that rights run throughout the lifetime of nearly all artists. Click the article link below to access more information about BECS arguments and why BECS believes that changes to the term of protection for performers' rights matters for all performers. If you would like further background about this topic please contact either Andrew Yeates or Andy Prodger here at BECS.

BECS response to the UK Intellectual Property Office Consultation

Equity response to the UK Intellectual Property Office Consultation

The last year has been one of the busiest periods for BECS. It has been marked by more internal developments and the coming on board of more new projects than ever before.

Statement from Equity and British Equity Collecting Society November 2007 Performers’ Rights in European Legislation.

Equity approves new BECS distribution policy for BBC simultaneous cable retransmission revenue (BBC SCR Revenue).

The British Equity Collecting Society (“BECS” or "we", “us” or “our” as the context permits) practices a firm commitment to privacy. The following discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices for our operations. This statement may be updated from time to time, so please check back periodically.

BECS takes the privacy of its members extremely seriously. Your personal data is held securely and is only accessible to authorised personnel.

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