| Author (Person) | McLauchlin, Anna |
|---|---|
| Series Title | European Voice |
| Series Details | Vol.11, No.26, 7.7.05 |
| Publication Date | 07/07/2005 |
| Content Type | News |
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By Anna McLauchlin Date: 07/07/05 The European Commission will today (7 July) confirm its move towards pan-EU licence fees for online distributors of on-demand music. A study on how best to deal with management of copyright in the internal market found that the "most effective long-term model" would be to give rights holders the freedom to choose whether they authorise a single company to license their work online throughout the EU. At the moment, companies known as 'collecting societies' work on a national basis. For example, a collecting society in France can sell the rights of French authors to be published abroad. Or, it can sell the rights of foreign authors in France. What it cannot do is sell the rights of non-French authors outside France. But the Commission thinks that the system, which for online distributors means they have to apply to 25 rights management bodies to offer online music in the EU, is outdated. In 2005, the executive estimates that Western European online music revenue is expected to rise to Û106.4 million, while the US revenue will forge ahead to Û498.3 million. "This gap between US and Western European online music revenue needs to be addressed," a Commission official said. Under the Commission's plans, which it will lay down in legislative form in October, member states would have to adhere to a set of core principles. These would effectively snuff out any notion of residence or nationality as a basis for selling or offering rights. They would also remove online rights management from the usual scope of management, meaning that a rights holder could then choose any society in Europe to distribute his rights anywhere he wanted. Allowing cross-border distribution of online royalties will also, the EU executive thinks, encourage collecting societies to set up pan-EU copyright licences for all commercial uses of music. The official denied that the proposals would force member states to compete against one another to offer the cheapest rights and scratch away at rights holders' earnings, as feared by the collecting societies. "The issue that small collecting societies will disappear if there is more choice for rights holders is a bit of a smoke-screen," he said. "Under the current system, authors and other rights holders tend to join their national collecting society and collecting societies in smaller member states are thus inevitably doomed to remain small players." "[Our suggestion] gives a chance to those societies who have not got a strong domestic base but, on account of their efficiency, can be attractive for authors from other jurisdictions." A spokesperson for GESAC, the European federation of collecting societies, declined to comment. The European Commission published an in-depth study on 7 July 2005 on how copyright for musical works is licensed for use on the Internet. It thereby confirmed its plea for pan-EU licence fees for online distributors of on-demand music. The study found that the 'most effective long-term model' would be to give rights holders the freedom to choose whether they authorise a single company to license their work online throughout the EU. |
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| Source Link | http://www.european-voice.com/ |
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| Subject Categories | Business and Industry, Internal Markets |
| Countries / Regions | Europe |
