What is the extended collective licence?

Norwaco makes agreements on the retransmission of television and radio channels and the recording of TV and radio programmes for use in institutions of learning and other enterprises. These agreements are supplemented in the Norwegian Copyright Act by the regulations on extended collective licence.

Extended collective licence is employed where it is particularly difficult for the users to enter into agreements with all the rightholders, for example regarding the retransmission of TV and radio channels or the recording of TV and radio programmes, photocopying of copyright-protected material in schools, and so forth. The regulations on extended collective licence supplement the agreement that has been made between the users and the copyright organisation, and makes the agreement legally binding also for non-organised rightholders, including foreign rightholders.

Advantages

For the users, the practical outcome is that the given agreement will cover all the rights of the area in question. For the rightholders, the arrangement entails that both organised and non-organised rightholders benefit from the conditions of the agreements. The agreements thereby come into effect for rightholders outside of the organisations as well. In other words, non-organised rightholders are just as entitled as organised rightholders to the remuneration that is collected and distributed by the rights organisations.

Norwaco makes exchange agreements with organisations in other countries, which ensures that remuneration funds reach foreign rightholders as well as national.

Approval

Norwaco is approved by the Ministry of Culture as an organisation that is permitted to employ under the extended collective licence provisions of the Copyright Act, in respect of the retransmission of broadcasting programmes and the recording of broadcasting programmes for use in education.