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British Equity Collecting Society (BECS) meaning
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What does British Equity Collecting Society (BECS) mean?
In practice, British equity collecting society (BECS) is the organisation to which film and television performers can mandate the collective administration of certain performers’ rights so that royalties from secondary uses of audiovisual works are identified, collected and distributed in the UK and abroad. It is the UK’s only collecting society (collective management organisation) dedicated to audiovisual performers, and operates alongside—but is distinct from—Equity (the trade union) and Equity’s contractual distribution services.
BECS typically manages statutory or collectively administered remuneration arising from uses such as cable retransmission, private copying and on‑demand/online reuse where such rights exist (often in other jurisdictions), rather than licensing primary exploitation. Mandates and distribution follow its published rules; producers and broadcasters must still obtain performers’ consents and clear primary rights directly.
“Collecting society/collective management organisation” is regulated in the UK under the collective rights management regime and within the performers’ rights framework of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988; BECS itself is not defined by statute. Usage is consistent across England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. In Ireland, BECS is not the national CMO for audiovisual performers; local CMOs apply, though BECS may collect and remit via reciprocal agreements.
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NEWS
BECS exercises EU DSM Directive Article 4 text and data mining opt-out, asserting performers’ exclusive rights against AI training and urging legislative reform
Statement follows: The British Equity Collecting Society (BECS) is moving to shield audiovisual performers’ rights against unauthorised AI training. BECS has unveiled firm measures to protect its membership, audiovisual performers, whose recorded performances are now being exploited, without consent or remuneration, to develop artificial intelligence tools. Developers of AI have drawn on performers’ recorded material to train their models and to output new content. In the UK, such activity violates performers’ exclusive rights under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Throughout the EU, it likewise infringes those exclusive rights. Nevertheless, certain AI companies have sought to defend this conduct by invoking the EU text and data mining exception in Article 4 of Directive (EU) 2019/790 and related national implementations...
25 February
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View the related Practice Notes about British Equity Collecting Society (BECS)
PRACTICE NOTES
Glossary of UK Film and Television Legal and Regulatory Terms: A–B
For other frequently used film and TV terms, see the following: Film and TV glossary C–D Film and TV glossary E–H Film and TV glossary I–L Film and TV glossary M–P Film and TV glossary R–S Film and TV glossary T–W Abandonment When a commissioning producer acquires takeover rights and, then or later, at any time, decides in their sole and absolute discretion that completing the film is not financially viable, they may, by notice in writing, delivered to the film production company itself, formally declare the production of the film abandoned and thereby bring the film’s production to a formal end. Acquisition agreements These agreements are intended for use in circumstances where a company obtains from the film’s owner rights across multiple separate media for a specified territory. See: Acquisition agreement—film—rights in a number of separate media for a designated territory—owner of film: Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents [58]. Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ...
22 May
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