A publisher is a natural person or a legal entity who gained publishing rights to publish a work on the bases of a valid licensing agreement. The publisher is obliged to submit all agreements and contracts to SOZA, the content of which may be related to the distribution of publisher´s shares.
The publisher, who concluded a licensing agreement to publish a work of an author not represented by SOZA, is obliged to complete a “Registration” of the work and to deliver it to SOZA, while it is the publisher who is responsible for the formal correctness of data given in the Registration.
Should the author represented by SOZA conclude a licensing agreement to publish his work with a publisher who is not represented by SOZA, that work shall be deemed by SOZA as not published for the needs of the distribution of royalties and pursuant to the agreement the author shall be responsible to settle the rights of the non-represented publisher.
Should the author of a musical work with lyrics conclude a licensing agreement only with the author of one part (i.e. only with the composer, or only with the writer of lyrics), the share of the royalties to be paid to the publisher shall be calculated only from the share of the author with whom the publisher concluded a licensing agreement to publish the work.
Should the rights holder conclude more licensing agreements to publish the same work and in the same territory, SOZA shall register the first of them. SOZA shall not be responsible for the disputes, and the consequences deriving from those disputes and damages shall be borne by the rights holder.
How can a publisher become SOZA member?
First it is necessary to complete an application for SOZA membership.
The publisher willing to become SOZA member has to meet the following conditions:
a) To submit valid publishing agreements to SOZA, but for at least 10 musical works, and
b) To conclude a Representation Agreement with SOZA, and
c) To pay an administrative fee to the SOZA bank account charged for processing the application for SOZA membership.
After the application for SOZA membership is delivered, SOZA shall send the membership candidate a draft of the Representation Agreement together with an invoice to pay the administrative fee for processing the application. The Supervisory Board shall decide about accepting the membership candidate within the period of 90 days after the application for SOZA membership is delivered. SOZA membership begins on the day when the Representation Agreement is signed by SOZA and by the membership candidate.