The licensing of a streaming platform is not regulated in Georgia by a separate statute — and this should be said plainly. On the content side, streaming rests on the licensing of copyright: the right of public communication, meaning the making available of a work to any person at a time and place chosen by that person, is precisely the right the platform licenses. On the service side, a provider of on-demand audiovisual media services established in Georgia requires the authorization established by the Broadcasting Law — mentioned here only as context, since the corpus of this page is the copyright act.
The Right of Public Communication — the Foundation of Streaming
Under the copyright act's relevant norm, the author or other holder of copyright has the exclusive right to use the work in any manner — the right to carry out, permit or prohibit every form of use. Central to streaming in this catalogue is the right of public communication: the transmission of a work by wire or wireless means so that it is accessible to any person at a time and place chosen by that person. This description is on-demand streaming itself: the consumer chooses the time and place, and the work is accessible. For a platform this means that every work placed in the catalogue requires a right of use — the author's consent embodied in a license. The author also has the right to receive a royalty for any use of the work, and the amount of the royalty and the manner of its calculation and payment are set by contract — for a platform this means the payment model is part of the license's price, not a side detail.
Exclusive and Simple Licenses — the Architecture of Exclusivity
The type of license determines the platform's strategy. By the exclusive-license contract the author or other holder grants only the licensee the exclusive right to use the work in the manner and within the limits defined by the contract, and gives the licensee the right to prohibit such use by other persons, the author included; a right transferred by contract is considered simple unless otherwise provided. This default matters: where the contract does not expressly write exclusivity, the license is simple and the holder keeps the power to deal with other platforms. Building an exclusive catalogue therefore requires a clear formulation of the exclusive license — by territory, term and type of use.
The Phonogram Producer's Rights — the Music Side
Streaming recorded music contains two layers: the author's right in the work and the phonogram producer's right. The producer of a phonogram holds the exclusive right to use the phonogram in any form, including the right to a royalty; among these rights is the transmission of the phonogram by wire or wireless means so that it is accessible to any person at a time and place chosen by that person — the same streaming formula, applied to the recording. These rights may be transferred by contract, and the first sale of a copy in Georgia exhausts the producer's right over its further distribution. The platform's conclusion is clear: a music catalogue requires a license of both layers — the author's and the phonogram holder's. A skipped layer later returns as a court claim, because each layer is an independent exclusive right and licensing one does not automatically cover the other.
The details of the phonogram layer are decisive as well: the producer’s exclusive right covers direct and indirect reproduction, the rental of the original or copies and their transfer by other forms of possession, distribution and import. The first sale of a copy in Georgia exhausts the producer’s right over its further distribution — this exhaustion works against the channel of distribution and does not touch the right of communication to the public, so a licence for streaming is still required. The author’s side demands the same precision: the right of communication to the public is one item of a list that also includes reproduction, distribution, import, public display and performance, translation and adaptation — and a platform’s use requires an exact choice from this list, not a blanket permission.
The royalty block is likewise part of the architecture of the contract: the author has the right to receive a royalty for any form of use of the work, and the amount of the royalty and the rules of accounting and payment are determined by contract. In licence terms this means that alongside territory, term and mode of use, the payment model must also be fixed in writing — otherwise every step of catalogue expansion demands a new negotiation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Below we answer the questions that arise most often around streaming licensing.
Is there a separate streaming statute?
No — on the content side the copyright act applies; on the service side the provider needs the authorization established by the Broadcasting Law.
Which right is the heart of streaming?
The right of public communication — accessibility to any person at a time and place chosen by that person.
When is a license exclusive?
Only by an exclusive-license contract; otherwise the right is considered simple.
From whom does a music platform license?
From both holders — the author of the work and the producer of the phonogram.
May exclusivity be enforced against others?
Yes — under an exclusive license the licensee may prohibit use by other persons, the author included.
How We Help on Legal.ge
The Legal.ge team assists platforms, content holders and distributors in preparing streaming licenses. We draft the type of use, territory and term, structure the architecture of exclusivity and verify the phonogram layer. Contact us for a consultation — we will assess your catalogue layer by layer and prepare license terms that fit your model precisely.