GVL (copyright collection society)

The GVL was founded as a joint society in 1959 by the German orchestra union, Deutsche Orchestervereinigung e.V. (DOV)[14] and the private company Deutsche Landesgruppe der internationalen Vareinigung der phonographischen industrie, which was the German national group of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). The first two managing directors were Herrmann Voss and Rudi Thalheim.[15] Its full legal name is Gesellschaft zur Verwertung von Leistungsschutzrechten mbH.

On 16 May 1963 GEMA, VG Wort and the GVL founded ZPÜ which is, as of 2020, an association of nine German collective management organisations which asserts claims for remuneration, information and reporting related to reproductions/copies of audio and audiovisual works pursuant to Art. 53 paragraph 1-3 German Copyright Ac. Due to massive back payments, the GVL collected nearly €170 million ($200 million) in this sector in 2017.[16][17][18]

On 9 September 1965 the German legislature integrated Neighbouring Rights into the Copyright Law of Germany called Urheberrechtsgesetz (UrhG) as Related Rights to both Producers and Performers.

Since 1 May 1976, the GVL had used the Label Code (also referred to as "Labelcode") for its internal data. The first issued Label Code 0001 was in 1977 and was issued to the record company Ultraphone. Label Codes made it easier for broadcasters to detect which recordings were covered by the broadcasting license agreement with the GVL. The Broadcast Reports are vital for the remuneration of producers. However, the absence of individual track identification and associated Performers via the Label Code system via ISRC use has meant allocation of some performers' rights to equitable remuneration have been neglected. As of 2017, the GVL has adopted the internationally recognised ISRC form of sound recording identification which enables the remuneration to be allocated on an individual recording much more precisely than before.[19]