An author is not necessarily an artist, as it may be a person who created the pen on your table. The law defines that an author is a creator, and he has the right to protect his creation. A musical creation is a product that needs to be protected.
The creator is the only owner of his work
In France, it was in 1700 that it was officially decreed that only the creator can use his product and one cannot sing or dance with his song without his authorization. According to the law, copyright is divided into two parts: moral rights and economic rights. The moral right means that a work remains perpetual, it cannot be erased from the face of the earth, and it cannot be sold, nor deleted in social networks. This moral right guarantees the authorship of the work, which obliges people who use the work to cite its creator.
The use of works has a right
Then the moral right obliges people to respect the work as it is, without transforming or changing it. Then for the patrimonial right which consists in not extracting money by exposing or diffusing the work of a creator or author without his approval. You should know that during the author's lifetime and 70 years after his death, you will have to buy his right when you use or distribute his work. Once the 70 years are up, his or her works are put into public domain, which means that anyone can use them.
The music and the patrimonial right
In France, the SACEM is in charge of paying the rights of the authors. These rights, they acquired them thanks to the payment of the people who listened to and used their musical work with their authorization. We are talking about the media, and the various artists who make musical covers, animators, etc. The seller of CDs and VCDs also pays their share of the authorization fee to the author. A CD sold means a contribution to the songwriter's fund.
So, you who keep playing songs in the streets, have you made a declaration to the authors' rights association?
