Management of Copyright and Related Rights

Proposal for a directive (11.07.2012) 

The Commission adopted a proposal for a directive on collective rights management and multi-territorial licensing of rights in musical works for online uses. The proposal aims at ensuring that rightholders have a say in the management of their rights and envisages better functioning collecting societies as a result of the set standards all over Europe. The proposed directive will also ease the licensing of authors' rights for the use of music on the Internet. This should lead to improved access to and more offer of music online.

• Press release
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Text of the proposal(171 KB)  
• Impact Assessment:
  • Summary(35 KB)  
  • Full text(2 MB)  

Monitoring 

The Commission has now completed the assessment of Europe’s online music sector in the light of the Commission Recommendation 2005/737/EC of 18 October 2005 on collective cross-border management of copyright and related rights for legitimate online music services. The attached “summary report” presents the results of the monitoring. The “call for comments” launched on 17 January 2007 yielded 89 replies from a wide variety of stakeholders that have a direct or indirect interest in how music is licensed for online services that are accessible across the Community. All 79 non-confidential contributions are now made available on this website.

• Summary report  
• Call for comments  

Public Hearings 

The Governance of Collective Rights Management in the EU, Brussels (23.04.2010)

On April 23, 2010, the European Commission held a Public Hearing on the Governance of Collective Rights Management in the EU. The aim of the hearing was to explore how the relationships between copyright owners, collecting societies and commercial users of copyright have evolved over time.

• Final agenda  
• Speeches and presentations:
  • Panel 1 – Relationship between Collective Rights Managers and their Members
    • SACEM – Thierry Desurmont  
    • MPAA – Ted Shapiro  
    • ADAMI – Isabelle Feldman  
    • ICMP – Alessandra Silvestro  
    • EWC – Myriam Diocaretz  
    • DACS – Gilane Tawadros  
    • EFJ – Pamela Morinière  
    • CIAM – Bendik Hofseth  
    • ECSA – Patrick Rackow  
    • AISGE – José Maria Montes  
  • Panel 2 – Relationship among Collective Rights Managers
    • PRS – Frances Lowe  
    • SABAM – Christophe Depreter  
    • BildKunst – Gerhard Pfennig  
    • Eurocopya – Idzard Van der Puyl  
    • AEPO-ARTIS – Tilo Gerlach  
  • Panel 3 – Relationship between Collective Rights Managers and Commercial Users
    • NOKIA – Tim Frain  
    • EDIMA – Jeremy Rollison  
    • RTL Group – Christian Hauptmann  
    • BEUC – Kostas Rossoglou  
    • GESAC – Véronique Desbrosses  
    • FEP – Anne Bergman  
    • EBU – Peter Weber  
    • IFPI – Lauri Rechardt  
    • GEMA – Urban Pappi  

Recommendation  (18.05.2005)

The European Commission has adopted a recommendation on the management of online rights in musical works. The recommendation puts forward measures for improving the EU-wide licensing of copyright for online services. Improvements are necessary because new Internet-based services such as webcasting or on on-demand music downloads need a license that covers their activities throughout the EU. The absence of EU-wide copyright licenses has been one factor that has made it difficult for new Internet-based music services to develop their full potential.

• Recommendation
  • Corrigendum
• Impact Assessment  
• Press Release
• FAQ
• Speech of C. McCreevy

Working documents 

Music copyright: Study on a community initiative on the cross-border collective management of copyright

• Study on a community initiative on the cross-border collective management of copyright  
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Special feature Single Market News:
  • Copyright at the Crossroads?  

Related documents 

• Communication (16.04.2004)
  • Full text
• Consultation
  • Text of the closed consultation  
  • 107 Organizations and other stakeholders submitted contributions to COM(2004)261 final.
    List of the 99 contributions authorised for publication
• Hearing