Re: CRT royalty payments

On 10 Jun 1999, Philip Belfer <pbelfer[_at_]netscape.net> wrote:
>
> I work in the office of the general counsel for a television
> affiliate in New York City. I have a question regarding distribution
> of royalty payments which you may be able to help answer. I am
> familiar with the process of distribution of money from the copyright
> arbitration royalty panel or CRT to copyright-holders. Sometimes,
> however, a copyright-holder may receive royalty payments from CRT
> and then redistribute those funds amongst other joint copyrights
> holders (e.g. television broadcasters and producers). The issue is
> whether redistribution of royalty payments by the primary recipient
> (a television broadcaster) is normally done in accord with percentage
> ownership of copyright or in accord with contractual provisions for
> division of "net profits" received from distribution. I appreciate
> any insights you may have.

In my experience, which is limited to independent documentary productions, there is a contract which defines a percentage to which contributors to the program may be entitled. These contributors may or may not be considered joint copyright holders as a matter of law, but the distribution is based on contract rather than the duty of joint copyright holders to account to each other for equal shares of profits from the work. In addition, of course, performers are frequently entitled to residual payments, but these are usually fixed fees built on the minimums established by the Screen Actors Guild contract.

John Noble
<jnoble[_at_]dgsys.com> Received on Fri Jun 11 1999 - 12:42:26 GMT