Rules and composition

Articles of Association
General regulations
Board of Management
General Assembly
Committees
Distribution - rules and resolutions

PLR

Articles of Association

The Articles of Association of SOFIA can be downloaded in PDF format by clicking on the following link:XXXXX

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General regulations

The general regulations of SOFIA can be downloaded in PDF format by clicking on the following
link:XXXX

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Board of Management

SOFIA is administered by a Board of Management composed of equal numbers of authors and publishers.

Authors:
Mme Françoise Cartano: President
Mme Marie-France Briselance
M. François Coupry
M. Jacques Duquesne
M. Yves Frémion
Mme Myriam Anissimov
M. Dominique Le Brun
M. Alain Absire
M. Hubert Tubiana: Representing the SGDL

Publishers:
M. Brice Amor (Éditions Gallimard) : Vice-president
M. Pascal Flamand (Éditions du Seuil)
M. Vianney de la Boulaye (Éditions Larousse)
M. Serge Eyrolles (Éditions Eyrolles)
M. Pierre Dutilleul (Groupe Éditis)
M. Francis Esménard (Édition Albin Michel)
Mme Irène Lindon (Édition de Minuit)
M. Jean Orizet (Le Cherche-Midi)
Mme Christine de Mazières: Representing the SNE

The composition of the Board of Management and its terms of reference are defined in article 13 of the Articles of Association.

The Board of Management consists of 18 administrators:

· 16 elected by the General Assembly: 8 authors, 8 publishers

· 2 whose appointment is ratified by the General Assembly: one representative of the Societé des Gens de Lettres (SGDL), one representative of the Syndicat National de l'édition (SNE).

The President and Vice-President (article 19 of the Articles of Association)

The President is elected by the Board of Management from amongst the author administrators.

The Vice-president is elected by the Board of Management from amongst the publisher administrators.

President of SOFIA: Mme Françoise Cartano

Vice-President of SOFIA: M. Brice Amor

The President and the Vice-President, co-administrators, de SOFIA, select from outside the associates, one director to be responsible for the correct operation of the society.

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General Assembly

In accordance with paragraphs XVI, XVII and XVIII of the Articles of association, the associates of SOFIA hold General Assemblies; these are qualified as Extraordinary when their decisions relate to changes to the Articles of association or the dissolution of the Society and Ordinary in all other cases.

Participation of the Associates at General Assemblies involves two colleges:

- the college of Authors

- the college of Publishers

Any vote on resolutions tabled at General Assemblies is taken within each college. Any resolution submitted to a vote of the Assembly must gain a majority in both colleges.

Results of the last Ordinary General Assembly on 21 June 2007

· Results of the election by the college of Authors of 6 members of the Board of Management

At the General Assembly held on 21 June 2007, the following were electedto the College of Authors of the Board of Management of SOFIA:

1° - FRANCOISE CARTANO
2° - FRANCOIS COUPRY
3° - MARIE-FRANCE BRISELANCE
4° - JACQUES DUQUESNE
5° - YVES FREMION
6° - DOMINIQUE LE BRUN

· Results of the election by the College of Authors of 3 members of the Information and Monitoring Committee

The following were elected to the College of Authors of the Information and Monitoring Committee:

1° - BERNARD LEFORT
2° - MAURICETTE LECOMTE
3° - PIERRETTE CHALENDAR

· Results of the election by the College of Publishers of 3 members of the Information and Monitoring Committee

The following were elected to the College of Publishers of the Information and Monitoring Committee:

1° - LIONEL CLERGEAUD (ED. PLEIN SOLEIL)
2° - MURIEL L'HENORET (ED. P’TIT LOUIS)
3° - CH. – H. DUBAIL (VICTOIRES EDITIONS)

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Committees

Consultative committees are set up by the Board of Management, which determines their terms of reference, composition, organisation and duration. It appoints their members. The committees are made up of equal numbers of authors and publishers selected from amongst the associates. As far as possible they reflect the categories of work and publishing sectors concerned by the rights to be distributed. Committees advise in particular about procedures and conditions for the distribution of sums received by the Society, in accordance with statutory provisions (see article 23 of the Articles of Association).

Information and Monitoring Committee

Associates have the right to receive information in the two months preceding the General Assembly. To exercise this right, the Associate must write, at least 15 days prior to the date set for the General Assembly, requesting the documents to which he requires access.

SOFIA must then, within 10 days of receipt of the request, suggest a date to the Associate to come and consult the relevant documents at the Hôtel de Massa. […]

Any Associate who is refused such access may appeal to the special committee for which provision is made under the terms of decree dated 17 April 2001. In the case of SOFIA, this committee, provided for in article 25 of the Articles of Association under the title “Information and Monitoring Committee” (”CIC”) consists of 6 Associates elected by the General Assembly, half from the authors and half from the publishers, for a two-year period after which they must stand down. Candidates putting themselves forward for membership of the committee must not hold any appointment within SOFIA or in other rights collection society, nor on any internal committee of SOFIA. This committee must report annually about its activity to the General Assembly.

The law imposes limits on this right to information of the Associates. Article L.321-5 of the Intellectual Property Code states that an Associate cannot obtain information concerning amounts paid individually in respect of rights to any rights holder other than himself. In addition, article R. 321-6-2 adds that an Associate cannot access either named information relating to individual society personnel or documents intended to assist in the decision making process within social structures or that are related to a currently disputed procedure.

Standing Committee

The Standing Committee formed by the Board of Management consists of authors and publishers:
Authors: Alain Absire, Françoise Cartano, François Coupry, Dominique Le Brun, Hubert Tubiana, Jean Sarzana.
Publishers : Pascal Flamand, Vianney de La Boulaye, Lore Touraille, Brice Amor, Christine de Mazières.

SOFIA administration is represented on this committee by : Christian Roblin, Florence-Marie Piriou.

In addition to proposals related to distribution rules, the Standing Committee examines all matters concerning the day-to-day running of the Society that are referred to it by the Board of Management, and provide preparatory information in support of the latter’s deliberations.

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Distribution - rules and resolutions

Resolutions adopted on 26 April 2007 by the General Assembly of SOFIA for the first distribution of PLR

As an interim measure for the financial periods between August 2003 and the end of 2005, the General Assembly adopted the following distribution rules governing remuneration in respect of PLR in public libraries:

1) The threshold number of copies per book to qualify for distribution of remuneration due is set at 15. Rights earned under this threshold remain assigned to beneficiaries in SOFIA accounts and accumulate with those from later financial periods, either until the corresponding threshold is exceeded and the corresponding payment is made, or until payment is authorised by the Board of Management.

2) SOFIA will distribute to members of its Authors’ college those remunerations that are due to them in respect of books of which they are the sole author or translator. The same will apply for authors’ societies who claim from SOFIA mandates from other authors, provided that the date of the said mandate predates that of the contractual arrangements of the same type, perhaps invoked by the publishers. In the case of multiple authors or translators for the same book, the sums involved will be routed via the publishers.

3) Remunerations for authors and translators who have not mandated any society of authors will be paid back by the publishers, whether this involves, for each book, sole or multiple authors, with the exception of translated works for which the publishers will not repay the portion due to the translators, as the portion due to the original authors is subject to reciprocity agreements with foreign counterparts of SOFIA.

4) The remuneration per copy of a book is shared equally between the author(s) and publisher(s). For multiple authors of a book, the distribution undertaken by the publisher will be made pro-rata with the derived rights defined in contracts. Translators will receive, in respect of those works that they have translated, 50% of the author’s portion. Joint publishers will share the publisher’s payment in accordance with the income sharing formula in their agreements.

5) Moneys transiting via publishers are not subsumed in authors’ accounts at the publisher. They must be paid in full to beneficiary authors by the publishers who have received the payments. If the distribution of sums due is undertaken outside the normal statement periods for authors’ accounts, SOFIA will take responsibility for this immediate payment operation by the publishers for a fixed charge of €2 per author’s statement accompanied by the corresponding sum in settlement.

6) Publishers receive the full amount of the portion reserved by law for publishers. For paperbacks, as the remuneration is paid to rights holders for books that have actually been sold, the publishers of paperbacks will receive the full publishers’ portion.

7) The first accounting period for which remunerations are to be distributed extends from 1 August 2003 to 31 December 2004. The unitary sum for each book for which remuneration is paid is obtained by dividing the sums to be distributed by the total number of copies accounted for. The number of these copies is calculated from the detailed returns made by the book suppliers over the period under consideration, using a statistical method developed by a specialised company.

8) Actual costs were allocated as a proportion of levies for years 2003-2004 and 2005, as a function of the situation as at 31 March 2007, i.e. a total sum of €3,631,056 of which €1,676,095 (46.16 %) relates to the financial period 2003-2004 out of a gross balance for distribution of €13,948,863. The deduction rate applied by SOFIA in respect of its management costs is therefore 12.016% in respect of years 2003-2004.

Detail concerning point 8) : In its calculations, as the Standing Monitoring Committee incorporates IRCEC contributions when calculating the moneys used to pay rights holders, the actual deduction rate for management costs is 11.6%.