FAQ
What is a collecting society?
A collecting society is an association of rights holders (beneficiaries). It licenses the rights of copyright holders and ancillary copyright holders to users and distributes the proceeds, less administrative costs, to the individual beneficiaries in accordance with a distribution plan. The German Copyright Administration Act (UrhWG) forms the legal basis for the activity of collecting societies in Germany.
What is the task of VG Media?
VG Media represents the copyrights and ancillary copyrights of media enterprises and enforces fair compensation for the use of their rights. In the case of VG Media, the private television and radio stations are entitled to the compensation collected, which is distributed annually to the broadcasters in accordance with various criteria, e.g. the audience market share and cable coverage. VG Media is a non-profit organisation.
Why exactly do television and radio stations receive compensation?
Broadcasters annually invest around EUR 7 billion in the creation of content. Broadcasting signals Twenty-four-hours on 365 days a year is the result of significant investments. These broadcasting signals are provided by the broadcasters and protected by ancillary copyrights in the Copyright Act. If a third party uses the broadcasting signals of private stations, such party must pay compensation to VG Media. This also applies, for example,to texts, photos, trailers or audiofiles, prepared by the broadcasters at great expense and used by third parties commercially in electronic program guides (EPGs).
What happens when users do not conclude a license agreement with VG Media?
Everywhere cable network operators, the housing industry, hotel businesses, EPG operators and other users use rights to program signals, EPG material or other rights represented by VG Media, fair compensation must be paid to VG Media. This assures that broadcasters will share in the financial exploitation of their copyrights and ancillary copyrights, e.g. to TV and radio programs or additional program guide material.
Pursuant to the Copyright Administration Act, rights users are consequently obliged to have themselves granted the necessary license and to fairly compensate their use. It is illegal to use program signals or additional program guide material (images, texts, audio sequences and trailers) in electronic programme guides without concluding an agreement.
Any person interfering with the rights of the broadcasting companies represented by VG Media is subject to pay damage compensation and criminal prosecution (§§ 97 and 106 of the Copyright Act). In such cases, VG Media files actions for desistance and damage compensation as well as criminal complaints. It is supported in the systematic processing and prosecution of copyright infringements by GVU (The Society for the Prosecution of Copyright Infringements). You may find further information on GVU here: www.gvu.de.
Hasn't this already been paid through the payment to GEZ in Germany?
The Fee Collection Center (GEZ) in Germany exclusively collects fees to finance public-law broadcasting organizations (e.g. ARD, ZDF, Phönix, KiKa, NDR, WDR and over 60 public law radio stations, etc). The private broadcasting companies have no share in the over EUR 7 billion in collected fees in Germany.