The Nature of Broadcasting Rights — a Neighbouring Right, Not a Licence
In Georgian law, broadcasting rights unambiguously denote the broadcasting organization's exclusive rights defined by the Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights — not the broadcasting licence, which belongs to the domain of broadcast regulation. The two regimes are adjacent but answer different questions: the licence concerns going on air, while the neighbouring right concerns who may use the broadcasting organization's transmissions and how. Article 45 of the law states the general principle: the protection of neighbouring rights does not obstruct the protection of copyright, they are exercised with respect for copyright, and no provision of the law is interpreted as an infringement of copyright protection. Practically, this means that the rights of the author of a work included in a transmission come first, and the broadcasting organization's right is a layer built upon them — a hierarchy every retransmitter and platform operator must respect.
The Catalogue of the Broadcasting Organization's Exclusive Rights
Article 50 provides that the broadcasting organization holds the exclusive right to use its transmission in any form, including the right to receive remuneration for every form of use of the transmission. This means the organization may authorize or prohibit: the fixation of the transmission; the reproduction of the fixation — except where the transmission was fixed with the organization's consent and reproduction occurs for the same purpose as the fixation; the simultaneous transmission over the air and retransmission by cable by another organization; the transmission of the program over the air or by cable; the communication of the transmission to the public in places where entry is paid; the distribution of fixations in society through sale or other transfer of ownership; the rental of fixations or their transfer in another form of possession; and the transmission of fixations by wire or wireless means so that it is accessible to any person from a place and at a time chosen by that person. The last item covers contemporary streaming and on-demand viewing — the online delivery of a transmission is likewise a form of exercising this right, and platforms that archive or restream broadcasts operate inside its scope.