English information

PRESENTATION

Founded by Beaumarchais in 1777, today the SACD has 60 179 member authors, of whom 1 697 are Canadian. The Society is devoted to the defense of its members’ interests, both material and moral. While it is neither a union, nor a business, nor a state-subsidized organization, the SACD is a French-language based, international corporation charged by its members with the negotiation, collection and distribution of their royalties. Members include playwrights, screenwriters, composers, choreographers and directors. The SACD repertoire includes works for the stage (plays, ballets, operas, operettas, musicals, mimes, sketches), works for television (series, soap operas, cartoons), works for cinema (short and long films) and works for radio.

 

THE AUDIOVISUAL SECTOR

The SACD authorizes broadcasters to broadcast works from its repertoire against payments which are then distributed according to established norms. This is what we call collective management and it ensures that authors and their heirs are linked to the economic life of their work, for as long as it lasts. The SACD is first and foremost a corporation involved in collective management whose mission is to collect and distribute the royalties derived from all users of its repertoire. In Canada, screenwriters and producers are able to benefit from a composite system: their hiring and working conditions are regulated by collective agreements negotiated by the unions to which they belong. Commercial use of their work is regulated by licenses negotiated by the SACD with conventional and specialized broadcasters. By becoming a member, the author transfers to the SACD his or her right to authorize/prohibit communication to the public by means of telecommunications, as well as the reproduction by any means whatever, of his or her work.

It is on the basis of this transfer that the SACD can then negotiate licenses with broadcasters and agreements for retransmission, such as by cable, of works from its repertoire. In order for the SACD to be able to register a work in its repertoire, the author (screenwriter, director) must have signed a contract allowing the Society to exercise its rights with broadcasters, and which includes the SACD clause. To date, the SACD-Canada has negotiated licenses with Radio-Canada : Télévision and Radio, RDI, ARTV, Explora, Tou.TV, Télé-Québec, TFO, Bell Média : Noovo, Canal D, Canal Vie, Cinépop, Investigation, Z, Super Écran, CRAVE, Musique Plus : ELLE Fictions, MAX, Groupe TVA/Vidéotron : TVA, AddikTV, CASA, Prise 2, MOI&cie, LCN, TVA Sports 1 and 2, Zeste, Évasion, Illico, Indigo, Éléphant, TV5 Québec Canada/UnisTV, AMI-télé, Corus : Historia, Séries plus, Teletoon. The Society also collects royalties for works from its repertoire retransmitted by cable, following an agreement signed with the Canadian Retransmission Collective (CRC).

The SACD-France has signed contracts with French broadcasters, radio, video on demand services. In order to ensure the payment of royalties for the exploitation of works outside France, SACD has developed bilateral relations with foreign authors’ societies and signed reciprocal representation agreements in the field of performing arts and audiovisual arts.

With respect to countries and stage productions not covered by the SACD, it is the producer who is responsible for the remuneration of the author under the terms of the contract signed. The SACD also distributes to its members, royalties collected for private copying from manufacturers and importers of blank recording media in a number of European countries.

The audiovisual sector is managed collectively and ensures that authors and their heirs are linked to the economic life of their work, for as long as it lasts.

In the stage production sector, the SACD does not act for its members; it has no power to authorize or prohibit representations of their works and, in all cases, can only act in function of their decision. The author thus retains the right to authorize or prohibit each representation of their work.

For authors of documentaries, the same services are offered by the SOCIÉTÉ CIVILE DES AUTEURS MULTIMÉDIA.

AUTHORS COMMITEE

Gilles CARLE

President 1987-1992
Honorary President

Television

Luc DIONNE

President

Rafaële GERMAIN

François GINGRAS

Marie-France LANDRY

Patrick LOWE

Film

Benoit PILON

Vice-president

Denys ARCAND

Louis BÉLANGER

Johanne PRÉGENT

Performing Arts

Marie CHOUINARD

Pierre-Michel TREMBLAY

Steering Commitee

Luc DIONNE

Benoit PILON

Marie-France LANDRY

THE SACD CLAUSE

The SACD clause must systematically be included in the contract to be signed between an author writer or director and a producer.

However, including the clause in the contract is not sufficient to assure that the author writer or director will be paid through the SACD for the communications of his work.

In addition, all the other articles of the contract have to permit the SACD to exercise its rights in particular with the broadcasters and the media service providers. For example, if the contract holds that the author writer or director has given up all his rights, the SACD can not register the work in its repertory. Consequently, the author writer or director will not be paid through the SACD for the communications of his work in the SACD’s territories.

The SACD clause which has to be included in the author writer or director’s contract is the following:

“ Notwithstanding the granting to the Producer of this license for the exploitation rights of the motion picture/audiovisual work, the AUTHOR will collect, through the SACD, the copyright royalties due to the AUTHOR for the communication to the public by telecommunication, Hertzian waves, digital and analog modes, including the TNT, satellite, cable or by online systems such as the Internet, mobile telephony, catch-up tv service, video on demand, for the communication free of charge or against a lump sum payment for a subscription or an individual payment of the work in Canada, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Principality of Monaco, Luxembourg, Spain, Italy, Poland, Argentina, Estonia, Romania, Principality of Liechtenstein, The Netherlands or any territory in which the SACD or any authors’ society representing the SACD may intervene later. Consequently, it will be noted that in these territories, the Producer has the duty to remind the broadcasters, the distributors and the media service providers that the obligations contracted by them with the Producer will not release the broadcasters and the media service providers from the obligations it contracted or will have to contract with the SACD or any collective society representing the SACD.

The remuneration/compensation does not include the communication to the public by telecommunication of the work in the territories mentioned above or any territory in which the SACD or any author’s society representing the SACD may intervene later. The author’s remuneration for these territories will consist of royalties collected.

 

 

A documentary’s author writer or director has to register it in the repertory of the SOCIÉTÉ CIVILE DES AUTEURS MULTIMÉDIA (SCAM) whose rules are the same as those of the SACD (1).

(1) The SCAM has the same address as the SACD.

CERTIFICATION OF CANADIAN RESIDENCY

In accordance with the tax treaty beetwen France and Canada, when your account has been credited of royalties collected in France, we ask you to send us the forms 5000 and 5003 completed and signed.

 

The forms can be completed below in the section Document(s). They have to be completed in your name not in your company’s name.

 

After completing the two forms in three copies (one for the French Administration, one for Revenue Canada and one for your files), you will have to request Revenue Canada to complete section IV of form 5000-EN.

 

When form 5000-EN is completed by you and Revenue Canada, send us back two copies (« for the use by the foreign authority » and « for the use by the French tax authority ») along with the same two copies of form 5003-EN. The third copy of both forms is for your files.

MEMBERSHIP

Documents to complete and to join to the « bulletin de déclaration » (form to declare the work in the repertoire):

  • Membership agreement
  • Royalties payment method
  • Authorization – Address
  • Photocopy of the passport (ID page) or driver’s licence
  • Mandate (if agency)
  • Cheque amounting to 70.00 $ or Interac transfer with password SACD for the membership
  • VOID CHEQUE

All the documents completed must be sent before the broadcast of the work.

REGISTRATION

SCRIPT

The form « Bulletin de déclaration/télevision-radio » has to be completed by all the authors and the writer of the book if need be.
An electronical copy of the contracts has to be sent to the SACD (schlittler@sacd.ca). The original of the « Bulletin de déclaration » has to be mailed.

BIBLES

The form « Bulletin de déclaration/création de séries TV (Bible) » has to be completed by the authors of the literary and graphic bibles.

An electronical copy of the contracts has to be sent to the SACD (schlittler@sacd.ca). The original of the « Bulletin de déclaration » has to be mailed.

DIRECTION

The form « Bulletin de déclaration/réalisation » has to be completed by all the directors.
An electronical copy of the contracts has to be sent to the SACD (schlittler@sacd.ca). The original of the « Bulletin de déclaration » has to be mailed.

ANIMATION FILM

The form « Bulletin de déclaration » has to be completed by all the authors and the writer of the book if need be.
An electronical copy of the contracts has to be sent to the SACD (schlittler@sacd.ca). The original of the « Bulletin de déclaration » has to be mailed.