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| Kat-management of rights works perfectly fine. And it's cool |
A legislative initiative in
this respect was announced more than year ago, when the Commission
released its blueprint for intellectual property rights to boost creativity
and innovation. There it was highlighted that
While the substantive scope of copyright has been
largely harmonised, rights are still licensed on a national basis. In view of
the digital Single Market, streamlining copyright licensing and revenue
distribution is one of the most important challenges that must be addressed. In
the 2nd half of 2011 [so today's proposal comes with a bit
of delay], the Commission will submit a proposal to create a
legal framework for the efficient multi-territorial collective management of
copyright, in particular in the music sector. It will also establish common
rules on the transparent governance and revenue distribution.
Indeed, the same objectives mentioned in the 2011 blueprint have been set out [copied&pasted, suggests Merpel] also in the press release which accompanies the draft directive. This clarifies the
aims underlying such proposal (these being to modernise
collecting societies and put in place incentives to promote their transparency
and efficiency), along with the specific features relating to the collective
managament of rights for online musical works. In particular, the draft
directive is meant to address concerns relating to the fact that
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| There are times when transparency may not be appreciated |
More generally, collecting societies
operating in all sectors would have to comply with new European standards
providing for improved governance and greater transparency in the conduct of
their activities. The need for a change of certain practices was highlighted by
recent cases where royalties collected on behalf of rightholders were lost due
to poor investment policies, but also by evidence of long-delayed payments of
royalties to rightholders.
Key
objectives of the proposed directive include:
1. To promote
greater transparency and improved governance of collecting societies through
strengthened reporting obligations and rightholders’ control over their activities,
so as to create incentives for more innovative and better quality services.
2.
Building upon this – and more specifically – to
encourage and facilitate multi-territorial and multi-repertoire licensing of
authors' rights in musical works for online uses in the EU/EEA.
In practice:
·
Rightholders would have a direct say in the management
of their rights, be remunerated more quickly and their ability to choose the
most efficient collecting society for their purposes would be enshrined in law.
This would bring about better protection of rightholders' interests, as well as
increased access to cultural content for consumers.
·
The new rules would change the way in which collecting
societies work across Europe, with new requirements such as improved management
of repertoire, quicker payments to members, clarity in revenue streams from
exploitation of rights, an annual transparency report and additional
information provided directly to rightholders and business partners (such as
other collecting societies). Member States would need to have mechanisms for
solving disputes between collecting societies and rightholders. Improved standards
and processes should result in better functioning collecting societies and more
confidence surrounding their activities.
·
The multi-territorial licensing of authors' rights for
the use of music on the Internet across borders would be facilitated but also
subjected to the demonstration of the technical capacity to perform this task
efficiently. This would benefit authors, internet service providers and
citizens alike.
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| Attempts to predict the fate of EU copyright require cutting-edge techniques |
It may be interesting to
speculate about what the future holds for copyright now, as some suspicious
characters may think that we are just about to enter a new age of copyright in
Europe, which may end up with the creation of a EU copyright title.
So far this idea has been
vigorously rejected by members of the Commission. For instance, last year current
European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services Michel Barnier wrote about the need to develop the
digital single market, by addressing four main copyright-related challenges in
the years to come. These pertain to collective rights management, orphan works,
the online dissemination of audiovisual works, and the enforcement of rights.
However, no full copyright harmonisation should be pursued, in that the single
market in creative works should be “a Single Market but not a uniform one”.
'Single' but 'non-uniform' sounds a bit like an
oxymoron, doesn't it?
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