MANDATORY LICENSING FOR COMMUNICATION TO THE PUBLIC OF MUSIC AND VIDEOGRAMS

Under the Code of Copyright and Related Rights, any establishment open to the public that intends to use recorded music, via radio, television or the Internet, CD or any other media, including videograms, is required to apply for licenses for this purpose. The entity responsible for the management of Copyright (protection of authors, intellectual works or creations) is the Portuguese Society of Authors.

In what refers to related rights (those that the law assigns to artists - performers, film or music producers and broadcasting organizations), there are two entities with different areas of intervention: Audiogest, represented by Passmúsica, and GEDIPE.

PASSMÚSICA has the legitimacy to charge related rights in establishments or in any other public spaces that carry out the public performance of recorded music, music videos and / or karaoke. Information on licensing, prices and general conditions is available on the entity's website: www.passmusica.pt.

GEDIPE is an entity with public utility that acts in accordance with Law No. 26/2015 of April 14, representing, in Portugal, cinematographic and audiovisual producers and also the productions of generalist televisions. GEDIPE's performance is more recent and, within the scope of its activity, it collects and distributes public communication rights. Therefore, any business establishment that has connected television sets in areas of public access is obliged to pay public communication rights to film and audiovisual producers and thus to obtain a license from GEDIPE.

Commercial establishments, with the exception of local accommodations, can obtain a license from GEDIPE by filling out the licensing form that is available on the entity's website: www.gedipe.org, Menu "Information Duty" and sub-Menu "License Request”, choosing the link corresponding to the respective commercial establishment or contacting GEDIPE by phone or email. The licensing request form - when properly completed, signed and stamped - must be sent to info@gedipe.org or by letter to Av.ª Infante Dom Henrique, no. 306, lot 6, 1st Floor, 1950-421 Lisbon.

The communication of videograms to the public means the availability, by the establishment, of television broadcasts and retransmissions or similar devices, in which it is possible to view content protected by copyright and related rights, allowing these contents to be viewed by those spaces’ users. In this framework, "the phonogram or videogram producer has the exclusive right to make or authorize, for himself and his representatives (…) the communication to the public, of phonograms and videograms, including the dissemination by any means and the public execution, direct or indirectly, in a public place". When a commercially edited phonogram or videogram, or its reproduction, is used by any form of public communication,"the user must pay, in return for authorization (...) a fair and unique remuneration, to be divided between the producer and the artists or performers in equal parts, unless otherwise agreed”. The lack of licensing is subject to the control of the police and economic inspection authorities and may result in the application of judicial measures, such as the prohibition on the continuation of unlicensed public execution and the imposition of fines.