While these agreements are useful for ensuring that a songwriter`s songs could eventually collect royalties to be used in other countries, this is not guaranteed. From the songwriter`s perspective, mutual agreements between companies are insufficient, as companies do not proactively register your songs directly with other companies. Basically, joining a single CMO is a more passive approach to global publishing than if you were dealing directly with a publishing house or an established publishing administrator who has the ability to register your works directly with CMOs around the world. So be sure to ask your publisher or publishing administrator if they have direct relationships with CMOs around the world. PRS For Music and BMI have announced the signing of a new international agreement. In their March 2007 response, CISAC members approved a number of draft commitments to address the Commission`s concerns, including the requirement for companies to lift membership restrictions and grant multi-territorial licences for the exercise of rights valued by the Internet, satellite and cable. However, under pressure from a group of Europe`s largest media and telecommunications groups, the Commission rejected the commitments on the grounds that they were not sufficient to restore effective competition in the market. In July 2008, the Commission found that the clauses of the CISAC agreements on membership restrictions and territorial exclusivity were contrary to the Commission`s prohibition of restrictive practices (Article 81) and that „concerted practices“ between collecting societies were anti-competitive. While the Commission considered that the imposition of criminal sanctions against companies was counterproductive, the decision required companies to change their representation agreements and practices. The decision of CISAC and a number of collecting societies is being appealed. BMI works closely with the more than 90 sister companies with which it has entered into mutual representation agreements. On 21 July 27008, just a few days after CISAC`s decision, the Dutch collecting society BUMA announced that it had granted a European licence for its worldwide music repertoire (including the repertoire of the British collecting society PRS) to the online music store Beatport.com. BUMA had considered that the mutual representation agreement concluded before the CISAC decision between BUMA and PRS, which prohibited BUMA from obtaining a licence for the PRS repertoire outside the Netherlands, would be annulled following CISAC`s decision.
However, PrS received an injunction ordering BUMA not to license the PRS catalogue outside the Netherlands, the judge finding that the Cisac decision had considered that a concerted practice between CISAC members was contrary to competition, but not as an agreement between individual members. Despite the CISAC ruling, it appears that some obstacles remain to the creation of a pan-European licence. The agreement includes the entire PRS repertoire that is not subject to direct trade by the five major publishers – and the accompanying mechanical rights, controlled by MCPS and IMPEL – in 130 regions of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, with a framework to extend it to other markets. In Britain and Ireland, a lot of repertoire, which is reinforced by PRS by mutual agreements with other companies in other parts of the world, is also part of the agreement. . . .