An extended collective licence is a mechanism provided for by the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market of 17 April 2019 and incorporated into the French Intellectual Property Code (articles L. 324-8-1). It allows collective management organisations such as ADAGP to extend a licence (i.e., a contract authorising the exploitation of its members’ works) to non-member authors, for the exploitation of the same type of works.
French law provides for the possibility of using such a mechanism for licences relating to the following types of exploitation:
- The exploitation of works in digital form by educational establishments for illustration purposes, as part of their teaching activities (art. L. 122-5-4 of the French Intellectual Property Code);
- The exploitation of visual artworks by content-sharing platforms (art. L. 137-2-1 of the French Intellectual Property Code);
- The exploitation of visual artworks within scientific works openly released on the Internet (art. L. 139-1 of the French Intellectual Property Code).
The French Ministry of Culture delivered an authorisation to ADAGP by decree on 13 September 2022. In this respect, ADAGP is authorised to ask the Ministry to extend licences relating to the exploitation of works from its repertoire to non-member artists-authors in the aforementioned cases. They will be able to receive, in the same way as ADAGP members, a portion of the amounts collected under such licences.
If non-member artists do not wish to benefit from this measure, they can notify the organisation at any given moment.
When artists notify the organisation after a licence has already expired, the removal is effective within three months following the notification at the latest.