PLR in Belgium

Belgium

The Lending Right Directive was incorporated into Belgian copyright law in June 1994. This gave authors a (limited) exclusive lending right and guaranteed them equitable remuneration for the lending out of their works. However, the federal government did not promulgate the required implementation decrees and as a result no further progress was made. An authors’ organisation complained to the European Commission in 2000 and the Belgian government was taken to court for failure to implement the Directive. The courts found against the government and the legislation was implemented properly by royal decree in June 2005.

Reprobel, the Belgian copyright collecting society, has been appointed by the Belgian government by the June 2005 royal decree to manage the new PLR system in Belgium. The initial appointment goes up to 31 October 2006. Another Royal Decree will be needed after this and it is hoped it will have unlimited duration.

Talks between Reprobel and the regional governments (the major clients) have already had some success. The Flemish Minister of Culture made a unilateral commitment to pay over 1 million Euros for 2004, 1.15 million Euro for 2005 and 1.3 million for 2006. But details of the agreement remain to be settled before it is officially signed off.

Discussions have also been on-going with the government of the French Community in Belgium. A total sum of 1.5 million Euros has been agreed for the three-year period 2004-06. The third, and smallest, of the provincial governments – the German speaking community – has reached a verbal agreement with Reprobel over their PLR contribution.

Details of how the PLR money will be distributed have not yet been settled, but 70% is expected to go to authors and 30% to publishers.

For a fuller account by Francis de Braekeleer of the PLR case brought by the European Commission against the Belgian government for improper implementation of the Lending Right Directive, see the Memorandum on the Application and Implementation of European Directive (pdf document).