| 2 | Obligations of collecting societies | |||
| 2.1 | Legal framework | |||
| Each collecting society will comply with: | ||||
| (a) | the Corporations Act 2001 and the Corporations Regulations; | |||
| (b) | the Copyright Act 1968 and the Copyright Regulations; | |||
| (c) | its Constitution; | |||
| (d) | the Attorney-General's Guidelines for Declared Collecting Societies (where applicable); | |||
| (e) | its obligations under the Privacy Act 1988, including the National Privacy Principles, or any privacy code that applies to the collecting society; and | |||
| (f) | any other applicable legislation, relevant decisions of courts or tribunals (including the Copyright Tribunal), and other binding legal requirements, conditions or guidelines that apply to the collecting society. | |||
| 2.2 | Members | |||
| (a) | The membership of a collecting society will be open to all eligible creators of copyright material, and to anyone who owns or controls copyright material, in accordance with the Constitution of the collecting society. | |||
| (b) | Each collecting society will treat its Members fairly, honestly, impartially, courteously, and in accordance with its Constitution and any membership agreement. | |||
| (c) | Each collecting society will ensure that its dealings with Members are transparent. | |||
| (d) | Each collecting society will provide a copy of its Constitution to a Member at the time that the Member first joins the Collecting Society, or at any time on request. A collecting society will also provide a copy of its Constitution to a potential Member on request. | |||
| 2.3 | Licensees | |||
| (a) | Each collecting society will treat Licensees fairly, honestly, impartially, courteously, and in accordance with its Constitution and any licence agreement. | |||
| (b) | Each collecting society will ensure that its dealings with Licensees are transparent. | |||
| (c) | Each collecting society will: | |||
| (i) | make available to Licensees and potential Licensees information about the licences or licence schemes offered by the collecting society, including the terms and conditions applying to them, and about the manner in which the collecting society collects remuneration and/or licence fees for the use of copyright material; | |||
| (ii) | to the extent it reasonably can, having regard to the complexity of the questions of fact and law necessarily involved, take steps to ensure that all licences offered by the Collecting Society are drafted so as to be plainly understandable to Licensees, and are accompanied by practical and suitable explanatory material; and | |||
| (iii) | consult with relevant trade associations in relation to the terms and conditions applying to licences or licence schemes offered by the collecting society. | |||
| (d) | Licence fees for the use of copyright material will be fair and resonable. In setting or negotiating such licence fees, a collecting society may have regard to the following matters: | |||
| (i) | the value of the copyright material; | |||
| (ii) | the purpose for which, and the context in which, the copyright material is used; | |||
| (iii) | the manner or kind of use of the copyright material; | |||
| (iv) | any relevant decisions of the Copyright Tribunal; and | |||
| (v) | any other relevant matters. | |||
| 2.4 |
Distribution of remuneration and licence fees |
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| (a) | Each collecting society will maintain, and make available to Members on request, a distribution policy that sets out from time to time: | |||
| (i) | the basis for calculating entitlements to receive payments from remuneration and/or licence fees collected by the collecting society (revenue); | |||
| (ii) | the manner and frequency of payments to Members; and | |||
| (iii) | the general nature of amounts that will be deducted from revenue before distribution. | |||
| (b) | Each collecting society will distribute payments to its Members in accordance with its Constitution and distribution policy. | |||
| 2.5 | ||||
| Each collecting society will deduct from its total revenue: | ||||
| (a) | the expenses of managing and operating the collecting society; and | |||
| (b) | any other amounts authorised by its Constitution. These may include, for example, the costs of promotional activities, educational programs, cultural funds, donations in support of creators and owners of copyright material, membership of industry associations, or other charitable purposes. | |||
| 2.6 |
Governance and accountability |
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| (a) | The Board of Directors of a collecting society will be representive of, and accountable to, its Members. | |||
| (b) | Each collecting society will at all times maintain proper and complete financial records, including in relation to: | |||
| (i) | the collection and distribution of revenue; and | |||
| (ii) | the payment by the collecting society of expenses and other amounts described in clause 2.5. | |||
| (c) | Each collecting society will ensure that its financial records are audited at least annually. | |||
| (d) | Consistent with its obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 and any applicable duty of confidentiality, a collecting society will provide a Member, on request, with reasonable information about that Member's entitlement to receive a payment from revenue. | |||
| (e) | Each collecting society will include in its Annual Report information about: | |||
| (i) | total revenue during the reporting period; | |||
| (ii) | the total sum and general nature of expenses and other amounts described in clause 2.5; and. | |||
| (iii) | the allocation and distribution of payments to Members, in accordance with the distribution policy. | |||
| 2.7 | Staff training | |||
| Each collecting society will take reasonable steps to ensure that its employees and agents are aware of, and at all times comply with, this Code. In particular, a collecting society will take reasonable steps to ensure that its employees and agents are aware of the procedures for handling complaints and resolving disputes set out in clause 3, and are able to explain those procedures to Members, Licensees and the general public. | ||||
| 2.8 | ||||
| (a) | Each collecting society will engage in appropriate activities to promote awareness among Members, Licensees and the general public about the following matters: | |||
| (i) | the importance of copyright; | |||
| (ii) | the role and functions of collecting societies in administering copyright generally; and | |||
| (iii) | the role and functions of that collecting society in particular; and will make information about these matters available, on reasonable request, to Members, Licensees and the general public. | |||
| (b) | In deciding what activities are appropriate for the purposes of paragraph (a), a collecting society will take into account the following factors: | |||
| (i) | its size; | |||
| (ii) | the number of Members it has; | |||
| (iii) | the number of Licensees it has; and | |||
| (iv) | the amount of revenue it collects annually; and | |||
| (v) | the possibility of undertaking activities jointly with another collecting society. | |||
| (c) | Without limiting paragraph (a) or any other obligation in this Code, each collecting society will produce and make available appropriate information about the following: | |||
| (i) | the eligibility criteria for membership of the collecting society; | |||
| (ii) | the benefits of membership of the collecting society; | |||
| (iii) | the responsibilities of Members under the Constitution of the collecting society and any Membership Agreement; | |||
| (iv) | any policies and procedures of the collecting society that affect Members; | |||
| (v) | the benefits to Licensees of obtaining a licence from the collecting society; | |||
| (vi) | the responsibilities of Licensees under a licence granted by the collecting society, and under the Copyright Act 1968 and other applicable laws; and | |||
| (viii) | any policies and procedures of the collecting society that affect Licensees. | |||