Literary Mechana

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The Literar-Mechana Perception Society for Copyrights Ges. Mb H. is an Austrian collecting society for the collective management and assertion of copyrights, participation and remuneration claims for linguistic works and sheet music based in Vienna .

history

In 1936 the legal requirements for the establishment of a literary collecting society were created. This led to the establishment of the state-approved cooperative literary collecting society (LVG) reg. Gene. mb H., who was to manage the broadcasting and speaking rights of authors and publishers in trust. However, due to legal restrictions, the LVG could not collectively exercise the mechanical reproduction rights of the authors or publishers. That is why the Literar Mechana was founded in 1959. However, the two companies were always run under the same management from the joint headquarters. On December 31, 2006, both companies were merged under the umbrella of Literar-Mechana.

tasks

The Literar-Mechana was founded jointly by authors and publishers in order to be able to collectively exercise the mechanical reproduction rights to written works . It acts as the trustee of the rights holders and collects fees for the exploitation of ancillary copyright rights. It forwards the royalties in full to their beneficiaries in accordance with the distribution provisions after deducting their administrative costs. Authors such as writers , screenwriters , journalists , scientific authors and translators as well as their legal successors and publishers are entitled to purchase . It currently represents around 14,000 beneficiaries. Any author or publisher who is an Austrian citizen or has his or her normal place of residence or seat in Austria can join . Citizens of EU and EEA countries are on an equal footing with Austrian citizens.

The beneficiaries are also represented abroad through reciprocity agreements with sister companies, and the foreign repertoire is also represented in Austria. Reciprocity agreements currently exist with Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Great Britain, Australia and the USA.

The Literar-Mechana is not geared towards profit and only deducts the administrative costs incurred (costs for collection, recording, documentation and distribution) from the license income. Literar-Mechana advocates modern copyright law and, based on the rights granted to it, concludes general agreements and framework agreements with umbrella organizations and individual agreements with users.

revenue

The Literar-Mechana earns royalties in the following areas:

  • Radio and television
  • Audio and visual sound carriers
  • Literary readings
  • Library royalty
  • Reprography remuneration
  • School book

control

The Literar-Mechana is subject to the control of the bodies composed of authors and publishers (general assembly and supervisory board), the supervision of the supervisory authority for collecting societies, furthermore the Higher Regional Court Vienna as cartel court and an independent auditor as auditor.

Social and cultural institutions

The Literar-Mechana manages institutions serving social and cultural purposes (SKE), which are fed from royalty income. From this z. B. supports beneficiaries and their relatives in social emergencies, in addition to old-age pensions, subsidies for health insurance and in the case of need for long-term care are provided, and work grants are awarded to creative people in the field of linguistic works (anniversary fund, playwright and script grants) and projects related to the use of literature, e.g. . B. funded by assuming the author's reading fees.

The Literar-Mechana also manages a social fund for Austrian writers and translators, which is funded by the BMUKK (arts section). Authors and publishers in need are supported by:

swell

See also

Web links