SCF represents over 500 producers and is the leader in Italy in the collection and distribution of neighbouring rights, which represent a fundamental source of income for the music industry.
We take legal action to protect our clients in order to recover unpaid royalties and to enforce the sanctions provided for illegal uses of the catalogue we protect.
Neighbouring rights to copyright
The Italian Copyright Law (LDA) has granted the producer the right to demand compensation for the use of their work through radio broadcasting, cinema, television, public festivals, or in public establishments since its enactment. This right also applies when the use is not for profit (art. 73-bis LDA), such as in events organised in oratories or by amateur sports associations. The Italian Copyright Law currently recognises the following rights to the phonographic producer:
Article 72
The phonographic producer has the exclusive right to authorise:
- The direct or indirect, temporary or permanent reproduction of his phonograms in any way or form, in whole or in part, and by any process of duplication.
- The distribution of copies of his phonograms. The exclusive right of distribution shall not be exhausted within the territory of the European Community, except in the case of the first sale of the medium containing the phonogram made or authorised by the producer in a Member State.
- The rental and lending of copies of his phonograms (this right shall not be exhausted by the sale or distribution of copies in any form).
- The making available of his phonograms to the public in such a way that each person can access them from the place and at the time individually chosen (this right shall not be exhausted by any act of making available to the public).
Article 73
The producer of phonograms, as well as the performers and executing artists whose performances are fixed in the phonograms, have the right to remuneration for the use of phonograms for commercial purposes by means of cinematography, radio and television broadcasting, including satellite broadcasting, at public dance parties, in public establishments, and on any other occasion of public use of the phonograms themselves.
The remuneration is recognised, for each phonogram used, separately to the phonogram producer and to the performers and executing artists. The exercise of this right is vested in each of the enterprises that carry out the activity of intermediation of rights related to copyright, to which the phonogram producer and the performers and executing artists have given a written mandate. The amount of the remuneration and the distribution shares, as well as the related procedures, are determined according to the provisions of the regulation.