8.0 Rights

As the owner of the copyright in the songs the publisher will have the exclusive right to control their use (even to the exclusion of the writer). As we have seen, the copyright will not extend to the performing right in the work because this right will have been assigned by the writer to the PRS by virtue of his or her PRS membership. In fact, in practice the publisher will only have limited control over the songs. For example, any third party wishing to record one of the songs will be entitled to do so as of right under the terms of the compulsory mechanical licensing system which operates in a substantially similar form in all of the major territories in the world. However, so far as other forms of exploitation are concerned the writer will often wish to impose various contractual restrictions upon the publisher. The publisher will usually require the writer to waive his or her “moral rights” (i.e. the right of the writer to be identified as the author of the work together with the right to object to any derogatory treatment of the work). Nevertheless, the publisher will usually accept contractual restrictions to the effect that the writer will be given appropriate credit and that there will be no adaptations or arrangements of the songs without the writer’s consent and perhaps that no synchronisation licences should be granted without the writer’s approval. Sometimes, the writer may wish to impose an obligation on the publisher to grant synchronisation licences to third parties upon such terms as the writer may specify. This is designed to overcome the danger of the writer requiring his or her song to be used for a particular purpose but the publisher refusing to grant a licence (the publisher may be dissatisfied with the financial proposals and may not wish to set a precedent).