Purpose of the company
Supervising authority and extent of exercise of the rights by GWFF
Who is supervising GWFF?
As a collecting society, GWFF is subject to supervision by the German Patent and Trademark Office whose extensive state supervision is regulated in Sections 18 through 20 WahrnG.
Advisory board
The rightholders´ interests are represented within the GWFF by an advisory board. The advisory board has the powers provided for in Article 7 of the Statutes of GWFF; it is responsible, in particular, for the preparation and the modification of distribution plans.
The advisory board is composed of representatives of the producers and the authors which representatives are partly elected by the rightholders and partly appointed by the shareholders.Which rights does GWFF exercise for the rightholders?
The catalog of rights to be exercised is defined in the collection agreement by which the authors transfer to GWFF the rights listed in the collection agreement for fiduciary exercise.
These are, in particular without being limited to, the following rights in Germany:
• recording devices and carrier media levy (Section 54 UrhG)
• remuneration for the rental and lending of videograms (Section 27 UrhG)
• right of performance in restaurants (Section 22 UrhG);
in foreign countries:
GWFF exercises the rights of the rightholders in foreign countries on the basis of reciprocity agreements with the local collecting societies:
in Switzerland and Liechtenstein:
• private copying rights
• cable retransmission rights
in Belgium:
• private copying rights
in the Netherlands:
• private copying rights and rights for the rental and lending of videograms
in Austria:
• private copying rights
• cable retransmission rights
in France:
• private copying rights
in Denmark:
• private copying rights
in Spain:
• private copying rights
in Sweden:
• private copying rights
in Slovakia:
• private copying rights
in Australia:
• educational copying service
in Romania:
• private copying rights
in Norway:
• private copying rights
in Portugal:
• private copying rights
In addition, GWFF collects for its rightholders the remuneration for cable retransmission of programs in European cable networks via AGICOA Geneva.
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