Commonwealth Consolidated Acts Commonwealth Consolidated Acts(1) A body may apply to the Minister to be declared as a collecting society for:
(a) all relevant copyright owners; or
(b) specified classes of relevant copyright owners.
(2) After receiving the application, the Minister must do one of the following:
(a) by notice published in the Gazette , declare the body to be a collecting society;
(b) refuse to declare the body to be a collecting society;
(c) both:
(i) refer the application to the Copyright Tribunal in the way prescribed by the regulations; and
(ii) notify the body of the referral.
(3) A declaration made under paragraph (2)(a) is not a legislative instrument.
(4) If the Minister refers the application to the Copyright Tribunal, the Tribunal may declare the body to be a collecting society.
Note: Section 153U sets out the procedure of the Copyright Tribunal in dealing with the reference.
(5) A declaration of the body as a collecting society must declare the body to be:
(a) the collecting society for all relevant copyright owners; or
(b) the collecting society for classes of relevant copyright owners specified in the declaration.
(6) If:
(a) a body is declared to be the collecting society for a specified class of copyright owners; and
(b) another body is subsequently declared to be the collecting society for that class of copyright owners:
then:
(c) the first - mentioned collecting society ceases to be the collecting society for that class of copyright owners on the day on which the subsequent declaration is made; and
(d) any remuneration notice given to that collecting society ceases to be in force to the extent to which it relates to relevant copyright owners included in that class of copyright owners.
(7) The Minister and the Copyright Tribunal must not declare a body to be a collecting society unless:
(a) it is:
(i) registered as a company under Part 2A.2 of the Corporations Act 2001 ; and
(ii) a company limited by guarantee; and
(b) all persons who are included in a class of relevant copyright owners to be specified in the declaration, or their agents, are entitled to become its members; and
(c) its rules prohibit the payment of dividends to its members; and
(d) its rules contain such other provisions as are prescribed, where the provisions are necessary to ensure that the interests of members of the collecting society who are relevant copyright owners, or their agents, are protected adequately, including, in particular, provisions about:
(i) the collection of amounts of equitable remuneration payable under section 135ZZZK; and
(ii) the payment of the administrative costs of the collecting society out of amounts collected by it; and
(iii) the distribution of amounts collected by the collecting society; and
(iv) the holding on trust by the collecting society of amounts for relevant copyright owners who are not its members; and
(v) access to records of the collecting society by its members.
(8) If the Minister or the Copyright Tribunal has declared a body to be the collecting society for a specified class of copyright owners, the Minister and the Copyright Tribunal may refuse to declare another body to be the collecting society for that class of copyright owners unless satisfied that to do so would be in the interests of those copyright owners, having regard to:
(a) the number of members of the first - mentioned society; and
(b) the scope of its activities; and
(c) such other considerations as are relevant.