It all began with Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (1732- 1799), who at various times in his life, was an inventor, musician, publisher, horticulturist, revolutionary (both French and American), and playwright (The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro).

Tired of seeing his plays being brought out without his consent and without being paied, whereas everyone else involved, such as the actors or set and costume designers were remunerated, he founded in 1791 the Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers -‘société des auteurs et compositeurs dramatiques’, SACD, which is in charge of defending the rights of dramatic authors. 

At “Les Ambassadeurs Café-Concert” on the Champs-Elysée, the author-composer Ernest Bourget refused to pay his bill, saying that he owed nothing to the owner of the café since he used his work for his own profit without paying royalties to remunerate the author. The ensuing trial led, on September 8th 1847, to the ban of playing Ernest Bourget’s works in this café-concert and the letter also received indemnities for damages.

The decision of the Court of Justice of Paris, on April 28th 1849 was favorable to the remuneration of authors and also guaranteed the legitimacy of the principle of authors’ rights, i.e. the exclusive rights of the author of a piece in view of its dissemination and reproduction.

In 1849, the foundation/cornerstone for a , “Le Syndicat des Auteurs, Compositeurs & Editeurs de Musique” was laid, bringing together authors, composers and publishers of music. One year later the structure of this labor union changed into a civil society that was officially recognized by a notary in Paris, on January 31st 1851,as the Society of Authors, Composers and Publisher of Music, SACEM. The purpose of the Society being the “mutual protection” of its members “with respect to producers of entertainment and public establishments performing musical works.”

Radio Luxembourg’s programs have always played French music, therefore SACEM has been asked by its members to collect their author rights, and to extend its activity to the Luxembourgish territory from where Radio Luxembourg broadcasted its program to France.

Subsequently, many Luxembourgish authors and composers joined SACEM. In order to be able to cover the needs and demands of the lather, and under the guidance of Bob Krieps, SACEM created together with the SDRM a Luxembourgish author rights society SACEM Luxembourg civil society on 1st January 2003.

SACEM Luxembourg represents authors and composers from all over the world and has the authority given by the law to collect and distribute royalties, thereby playing a crucial economic role to preserve musical creation. To guarantee authors’ intellectual property rights over their works is their priority.

This principle was new and it took some time before it could get transposed into legal texts.

Even if, after the French revolution and especially with the “décret de la Constituante” from 1791, author rights were already recognized as such, but it was not before 10th Mai 1898, that the bill on author rights was passed in the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg

This regulation should remain until 1972, when it got replaced by the law of 29th march 1972, which got amended in 1997 in order to consider the development of technology and respect European legislation.

On 18th April 2001, a new bill on author’s rights, neighboring rights and databases was adopted by the Luxembourgish government and remains in place today.

The actions taken by SACEM Luxembourg are based on the grounds set forth in Sections 3 and 4 of the Act from 18th April 2001, on author’s rights, guarantying the exclusive right to authorize the reproduction and communication to the public of the author’s work.

A completer