Sacem and Creative Commons

Building upon a pilot experiment that aimed to allow the members of SACEM to develop the promotion of their works by employing Creative Commons Licenses allowing non-commercial uses, while still attributing the management of their works to SACEM. As stated in the below defined conditions, both parties decided to renew their agreement.

All other forms of use remain subject to the exclusive management of SACEM, in accordance with his/her Statutes and General regulation.

For works that are licensed by Sacem members as part of this pilot under one of the Creative Commons Non-Commercial Licenses, the following uses are deemed to be commercial (and thus not allowed under the NC licenses and subject to prior license from Sacem and payment of a royalty to Sacem):

• any use of the work by a for-profit entity;
• any use of the work giving rise to any compensation, whether financial or other, whatever the form, the reason and the motive and whoever the beneficiary;
• any use of the work in order to promote or in connection with the promotion of products or services whatsoever and for the benefit of whomever;
• any use of the work by broadcasting entities as well as in workplaces, stores and retail spaces;
• any use of the work in restaurants, bars, cafes, concert venues and other hospitality establishments;
• any use of the work by an entity as part or in connection with revenue generating activities;
• any exchange of the licensed work for other copyrighted works by means of digital file-sharing or otherwise but only when there are advertising or sponsorship receipts, whether direct or indirect, or payment of any kind in connection with the exchange of copyrighted works.

These uses fall outside the scope of the Creative Commons Non-Commercial Licenses for purposes of this pilot, and Sacem will continue to license these uses and collect royalties related to them.

As an authors’ society, Sacem manages the works of its members, authors, composers and publishers and collects royalties from all kinds of users of musical works in order to distribute them among its members. Creative Commons has developed a number of standard licenses that allow authors to make available their works free of charge as long as some conditions are met. This allows them to take advantage of free online distribution and to allow their fans to build upon these works by remixing them or integrating them into other works. Until now Sacem did not allow its members to use Creative Commons licenses. With this pilot Sacem and Creative Commons want to make it possible for Sacem members to use Creative Commons licenses for non-commercial distribution of their works and at the same time have Sacem continue to license and collect royalties for all other (commercial) uses of these works. The pilot aims to provide more flexibility to authors who are members of Sacem. 

Sacem will also collect royalties for works licensed by Sacem members under one of the Creative Commons Non-Commercial Licenses whenever such works are used by the same entity in the framework of the same event and/or activity with works under Sacem management that are not so licensed.  For example, if an association plays, at an annual meeting, works licensed by a Sacem member under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial License and works of Sacem members that are not licensed under a Creative Commons license then Sacem will be entitled to collect royalties for both categories of works.

Access to your private secured digital space allowing to select works to Creative Commons