Reference document
Legal Basis
The authorities, cited.
The plain-language explanation is on the Why licensing? page. This page lists the legal foundation itself, for operators’ counsel, compliance officers, and rights administrators.
The right
Directive 2001/29/EC (InfoSoc Directive)
Harmonises the author’s exclusive right of communication to the public across the European Union, transposed into each Member State’s copyright act.
Directive 2006/115/EC (Rental and Lending Directive)
Equitable remuneration for performers and phonogram producers, the basis of the neighbouring-rights obligations administered territorially.
Directive (EU) 2019/789 (SatCab II)
Establishes the collective-management framework for retransmission of television and radio programmes originating in another Member State, extending beyond classic cable to other managed retransmission environments; Member States may extend aspects of the regime to domestic retransmission. For qualifying retransmissions, rights holders other than broadcasters exercise the retransmission right through a collective management organisation; broadcasters exercise the rights in their own transmissions directly.
The jurisprudence
C-306/05, SGAE v. Rafael Hoteles
The foundation. Distribution of a broadcast signal by a hotel to guests in hotel rooms constitutes communication to the public; the private nature of the rooms does not preclude it.
C-162/10, Phonographic Performance (Ireland)
Extended the analysis to neighbouring rights: a hotel providing broadcast access in guest rooms is a user making a communication to the public of phonograms and owes equitable remuneration.
C-351/12, OSA
Applied the principle to a spa establishment transmitting broadcasts to patients’ rooms.
C-117/15, Reha Training
Consolidated the assessment criteria across the InfoSoc and Rental Directives: deliberate intervention by the operator, an indeterminate and fairly large public, and a new public not taken into account by the original authorisation.
C-147/19, Atresmedia
Limiting authority
A limiting authority, cited for completeness: the communication to the public of an audiovisual work incorporating a phonogram does not, in respect of that incorporated phonogram, trigger the equitable remuneration of Article 8(2). Neighbouring-rights remuneration therefore does not arise automatically from every programme; the applicable position is established per content type during the assessment.
Application to vessels
No CJEU judgment concerns a vessel specifically. The Court’s criteria are settings-independent and have been applied across hotels, spas, and rehabilitation facilities. A vessel operator that captures a broadcast at the head-end and redistributes it to a succession of passengers in cabins and public areas performs a deliberate intervention reaching an indeterminate public not covered by the broadcaster’s original licence. On Clara’s analysis, each element of the established test is met.
Territoriality
Copyright and neighbouring rights are national rights. The communication to the public occurs where the public is: in the territory where the vessel operates when redistributing. A non-EU flag does not by itself displace territorial obligations arising while redistribution takes place within an EU jurisdiction. National transposition notes per operating territory are maintained by Clara and provided to operators under engagement.
Standing
Clara Europe BV acts as an administrative intermediary under written operator mandates. Rights are licensed from the rights holders and their collective management organisations; Clara holds no rights itself and represents no rights holder against any operator.
National transposition notes and a sample Licensing Obligations Report are available to operators’ counsel on request: [email protected].
What applies to your vessel.
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