Do you have questions regarding your membership, rights, duties . Are you looking for information on telephone hold music or producers' everyday problems.. Find under this heading answers to the questions most frequently asked by SPPF Independent Producer Members.

Joining the SPPF

What are the conditions for becoming a member of the SPPF?
Any private individual or corporate entity, either French or foreign producer of phonograms and/or videograms, can become an SPPF member.
Similarly, any agent, concession holder or representative duly authorised by contract to exercise all or some of the rights of one or several producers can be a member of the SPPF. However, in application of current General Regulations, the latter must be able to prove, during the admission procedure, his capacity as producer of phonograms and/or videograms.

Why choose the SPPF to manage neighbouring rights?
All applicants are free to choose from between the two non-trading companies that exist in France, the SPPF and the SCPP, the one to which they wish to entrust the management of their rights. The SPPF, which has almost 700 members, has had the vocation, since its creation in 1986, of representing the rights of Independent Producers, of every nationality.

What are the formalities to carry out in order to join the SPPF?
The following documents must be signed. These documents comprise the membership application file that you have received from the SPPF:

• Declaration of acceptance of the articles of association of the SPPF,
• Mandate B (obligatory and exclusive, for the exercise of the remuneration rights of phonogram producers).
  (If you wish you may also entrust other mandates to the SPPF).
• For corporate entities only, the standard form designating the private individual authorised to represent the corporate entity in dealings with the SPPF, and transmit to the SPPF:
  depending on your situation, a K or K bis company registration form (dated less than 3 months previously), a cheque for 153 euros made out to the SPPF, corresponding to a share in the capital of the SPPF, one copy of productions made or on which you have the right to claim neighbouring rights.

After consideration by the Membership Commission, your membership becomes final after approval by the SPPF Board.
For further information please contact Clélia GHNASSIA who will be happy to answer your questions.

Being a producer on a day to day basis

What are my obligations as an SPPF Member?
To ensure that the SPPF can apportion rights generated by your recordings to you, you must declare using the standard form, phonograms, sales of support media on which they are published and videograms.
The "Producers" software is available to you on request, free of charge.
This tool, available in both MAC and PC format, allows you to make declarations of your phonograms and of your sales of support media and of sales to the SDRM, the calculation of royalties (composers and artists), invoicing of your customers and mail order.

Can I receive rights retroactively?
All new members, who have never previously been part of the SPPF, must, in order to receive rights for their recordings retroactively, declare within 6 months of becoming a member all phonograms and sales of corresponding support media. The rights due to you will be calculated within the context of apportionments that take place after you become a member.

Is there any specific procedure for use of catalogue bases that are in the Public Domain and that I would like to "remaster"?
This technical process for giving new life to mono recordings is liable to raise legal problems, particularly with regard to the producers of the original phonograms who, at the time of their commercialisation, did not enjoy specific legal protection with regard to neighbouring rights.
The fact that there was, for many years, no law protecting phonogram producers cannot be interpreted as making such practices legitimate particularly since, in some cases, this can represent real loss of income for the original producer who risks seeing the public turning towards more attractive re-editions due to the improvement in quality.
Be aware that in order to combat this type of "poaching" of catalogue bases any producer who is the victim of such parasitic action has the possibility of bringing legal action based on unfair competition. On many occasions the courts have indicated that such action, based on the provisions of article 1382 of the Civil Code "has the aim of ensuring the protection of a producer who cannot claim an exclusive right".
However, the success of such action remains uncertain due to the strict conditions required for it to be used (proof of fault or loss) and to the requirement that the original recordings must still be on sale. In this case the action could be justified insofar as, by undertaking "remastering" of pre-existing, unprotected recordings with a view to selling them, the third party unquestionably benefits, at lesser expense, from the work and investments initially undertaken by the original producer.
We would therefore advise you, before any "remastering" of pre-existing phonograms that could prove damaging to the initial producer, to obtain his prior authorisation and to take all steps with non-trading companies in order to justify what you are doing and to find out the identity and precise postal address of the said producer.

I am an independent producer and I am not a member of any non-trading company. I have just signed a licence contract with a major who is asking me for an ISRC code. What should I do? What is it for?
Request the allocation of a producer's "root code" made up of:

• The country code of your country of residence - FR if you live in France,
• Your producer code.

Just send your request to the SCPP or the SPPF, together with:

• For companies: a K-BIS company registration form,
• For associations: the declaration as an association made to the police authorities (préfecture),
• For a private individual: obligation of being entered on the Trade and Companies register and of producing a K registration form.

For your information, below are the elements included in an ISRC code (International Standard Recording Code), for single identification of a phonogram at international level:

Exemple :	FR -	E19 -	00 -	0001 -	0
	1)	2)	3)	4)	5)

1. 1) country code for the country of residence of the 1st owner (2 characters),
3. 2) code of the 1st owner of the recording (original producer) (3 characters).
4. 3) code for the year of recording (2 characters). For phonograms recorded in 2000, indicate 00.
5. 4) recording code (3 or 4 characters).
6. 5) unit recording code (1 or 2 characters).

You must ensure that these ISRC codes have been correctly created.

I am an independent producer and I am on the point of signing a licence contract with a major "What must I do to preserve my neighbouring rights?"
A "neighbouring rights - derived rights" clause must be included in every licence contract. This defines:
1. who, of the two co-contractors, manages the said rights and makes phonogram and /or videogram declarations*,
2. where applicable, what percentage of rights will be allocated to each party.
* NB: declarations may not under any circumstances, be made by both parties.
There are two types of clause, but these do not have the same implications with regard to the management of your neighbouring rights:

• Either the "producer gives a specific mandate to the licence-holder so that he can proceed in his name with declarations for the recordings that are the object of this document and receive neighbouring rights pertaining thereto on his behalf".
• Or, and in order to retain management of your neighbouring rights, "the producer will register the phonograms that are the object of this document with his non-trading company".

We would draw your attention to the fact that in your capacity as Member of the SPPF, you must retain management of your neighbouring rights so that the SPPF is in a position to exercise fully the management mandate previously entrusted to it.
For information, the SPPF signed an agreement with the SCPP on 10th March 2000 in order to put an end to mandate capturing practices and to "co-declarations" within the context of licence contracts.
In practice, the SCPP and the SPPF undertake reciprocally to recommend to their respective members:

• To provide, in their licence contract, for entrusting joint management of neighbouring rights exclusively to the non-trading company of which the phonogram Producer is a member,
• The use of a standard "neighbouring rights " clause (the final drafting of which is, of course, left to the judgement of the co-contractors),
• The possibility of implementation of a debt transfer mechanism in favour of the licensed companies, in the form of a standard form to be attached, where applicable, to the licence contract, in order to permit collection of any financial advance granted by the licence-holder.

In practice, this agreement must cause your co-contractors to take note, within the context of your commercial negotiations, of your desire to have the exclusive management contract that you have previously entrusted to the SPPF complied with.
Since this protocol is liable to apply to an on-going contract, you must therefore get in touch with your co-contractor in order to sign an additional clause to the original contract, which must be notified to the SPPF as soon as possible. However, we would point out that the retroactive effect of this agreement to 1st January 1998 can cover only rights that have not been apportioned on the date of reception of the additional clause by the SPPF.

I'm bringing out a new album and I would like to encode the ISRC codes for each track. What should I do?
This operation takes place at the pre-mastering stage.
You can manage your own codes; however this means keeping a count of all your codes. Since the sequential series depends on the year of recording and the original producer, it is not always easy to keep track.
You must therefore ensure correct encoding of these ISRC codes and transmit them to us when making your phonogram declarations to the SPPF corporate register.
For even greater care with regard to correct encoding:

• You must transmit the phonogram declaration forms by fax or e-mail. You will thus obtain the codes and, at the same time, your declarations will be registered with the SPPF Corporate Register. Or:
• Send us this document by fax or e-mail, valid only in cases where the information listed below is common to all phonograms concerned.

If you do not have either timings or catalogue references codes can still be sent to you. These elements can be sent to us at a later date, when you have them available.
For this emergency procedure declaration sheets for your phonograms must be sent back to us, duly signed by you for acceptance.
Elements to send to us:

person making the declaration:

position of the person making the declaration:

1st owner of the recordings

nationality and postal details

start and end date of rights management (end of licence or mandate)

year of fixing (of recording of phonograms)

country of fixing of phonograms

year of 1st publication of phonograms

country of 1st publication of phonograms

artist

genre

catalogue reference (s) / brand / distributor / year of publication of support media

territories in which the support media is sold / used

rights declaration in %

list of phonograms (label copy or production sheet)

timings

Although all requests are dealt with urgently, you are however advised to send in your request at least 24 hours in advance.

I am licensing one of my titles for the publication of a compilation. What happens to my neighbouring rights?
This is only a publication authorisation, exclusive of any transfer of rights, of which the producer is the sole owner. However, it is a good idea to specify this in the agreement protocol or contract.

I would like to make a compilation including various phonograms produced by different Producers. What should I do?
Request authorisation for the use of each recording from the producer concerned.
The publisher of the compilation must fill in a declaration form, indicating for each of the phonograms:

- Title
- Artist-Player
- Duration
- Year of 1st recording
- ISRC code (if known)
- Producer or Company that issued the necessary authorisations.

The editor of the compilation will send of copy of this declaration to all Producers or Companies concerned, and to the non-trading company of which he is a member; the latter then completes details for the various phonograms it has in its files.
The sales declaration will also be made by the compilation publisher to the non-trading company to which he belongs.

Letters (P) and (C) : Note

These letters follow specific rules which must be complied with, particularly in the case of the phonographic licence contract by which a Producer grants the right to manufacture copies of his phonogram and must undertake to pass on to his co-contractor all the elements required to ensure protection of the said phonogram and guarantee the exercise of his own rights.

• These letters must be placed on all copies of a work published on which copyright is claimed (for letter (C)) and on copies published, i.e. all phonographic support media (for letter (P)),
• The letters " P " and " C " must be written inside a circle, when written in any other way they are of no value,
• These letters must be followed by the year of the first publication, respectively for a literary work or an audiovisual work (videogram) or for copies of the sound recording for phonogram,
• If, as Producer, you wish to protect the artistic composition of the label and cover of your phonogram or the packaging of your videogram, you must indicate the two letters (P) and (C) separately,
• In case of compilation of phonograms or videogramsincluding a series of sound or audiovisual recordings which in all or in part have been the object of previous publication, you must indicate the respective year of the first publication of each sound or audiovisual recording.
  The compilation itself may, in some cases, benefit from its own protection, if only in terms of the visual elements of presentation. It is advisable to give it a separate letter.
• In case of remixing(e.g.: an original mono recording is modified to become a stereo recording): you are recommended to indicate the original letter and a separate letter with indication of the year of the first publication of the remix,
• In case of extracts of original soundtracks of films, published separately on a phonographic support media:if they have been remixed (which is generally the case), you are advised to use the letter (P) with an indication of the year of first publication of the remixed sound recording and not the letter (C) which applies to the complete audiovisual work,
• For phonograms (P):the name of the Producer or his beneficiary must be indicated after the year of first publication of the sound recording,
• For videograms (C): the holder of the copyright must be indicated after the year of first publication of the audiovisual work.

We would remind you that under the terms of the Rome Convention, the phonogram Producer is defined as "the private individual or corporate entity who first fixed the sounds from a performance or from other sounds". According to article L. 213-1 of the Intellectual Property Code, "the phonogram Producer is the private individual or corporate entity which takes the initiative and responsibility for the first fixing of a sequence of sound."
These two definitions, which are similar to each other, specifically refer to the person who finances, contracts with the Artists-Players and musicians and organises production of the sound recording in its definitive form (after final mixing) and which can therefore, on a technical level, be reproduced in the number of copies required for the publication.
The beneficiary is the private individual or corporate entity to whom the Producer has transferred all his ownership rights over the sound recording.
In case of transfer it is therefore the name of the beneficiary, who is the rights' holder, and not the name of the Producer who has transferred his rights, that must be written next to the letter.
Printing of the letter (P) on the actual support media of the phonogram is accepted. However, with a concern for making the information clear to the public, it is preferable to print the letter (P) on the label or packaging and preferably for each work recorded (particularly for compilations).
For videograms, the letter (C) must be incorporated into the videogram itself, at the beginning or end, so as to be read when the work is shown. However, and for the same reasons, it is recommended that the said letter (C) be reproduced on the label or packaging of the videogram.

(P) 1988 STE ABC (C) 1989 XYZ PROD.

Legal registration of phonograms
For all information and to make registrations, you can connect to the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (National Library of France) directly using the link below: http://www.bnf.fr/web-bnf/infopro/editeurs/dl-phon.htm

© 2005 - SPPF