SacemMag 17
Join Sacem
Who created What?
View your statements online
Press releases

Authorization terms for importing records

Send by email
fleche  Send this page to your friends  fleche
Your name * fleche
Your friend's emails * fleche  Put a comma between the addresses.
Subject * fleche
Your message * fleche
Please, enter the code shown above * fleche  captcha
This field is required.   send

Authorization is compulsory in all cases, except:

1) If the phonograms that you import only reproduce works in the public domain, without arrangements or adaptations protected by copyright in France.

2) If the phonograms that you import only reproduce works not in repertoires covered by SDRM (SACD, Sacem, SCAM).

3) If a society of authors has already granted authorization allowing approved import of the phonograms concerned into France. You must be able to provide proof of this to SDRM.

For other cases, you must obtain authorization from SDRM (Society for the Administration of Mechanical Reproduction Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers) and pay the relevant authors’ rights to SDRM.

Warning: Payment of authors’ rights in so-called "legal license" countries – primarily the United States – does not count as payment outside these countries. Authors’ rights are due for any import of phonograms from these countries (whenever cases 1 and 2 described above do not apply).

Mandatory notations (To produce a record)

The mandatory notations to affix to phonograms are specified in paragraph 5 of the “Dispositions générales” (General provisions) on the back of the SDRM Licence Request.

If they are lacking or incomplete, this may infringe the rights holders’ moral rights and engage the producer’s responsibility.

In addition to the notations specific to the producer, the media must show:

  • A facsimile of the SDRM logo, when all or part of the works recorded belong to the repertoires it represents.•
  • The full title of all the works reproduced.
  • The names of the composer, author, adapter of the text, arranger of the music (when adaptation and/or arrangement are authorised).
  • The notation: “All rights reserved for the phonographic producer and the recorded work’s owner. No duplication, rental, loan or use of this record (cassette) for a public performance or broadcast is allowed unless expressly authorised.”
  • The notation: “Not for sale” for phonograms distributed free of charge.
  • The reference or catalogue number: the digital or alphanumerical identification number you attribute to the phonogram and that must appear on the jacket and the record. It must be identical to that on the SDRM Licence Request.

This information pertains to the system of “Work-by-Work” licences for reproduction. SDRM offers other contracts according to the size [importance] of the production and the producer’s logistical structure: the “Independent Producer” model contract and the BIEM contract.

Back to the top