EC issues decision on collecting societies
The European Commission today (Wednesday 16 July 2008) issued its decision on the collective management of rights in Europe, describing its position as the "prohibition of practices which prevent European collecting societies offering choice to music authors and users".
The investigation was opened following complaints from broadcasting group RTL and UK online music provider Music Choice.
In particular the decision requires the 24 EEA-based collecting societies which are members of CISAC to no longer apply:
- the membership clause, currently applied by 23 collecting societies, that prevents an author from choosing or moving to another collecting society.
- territorial restrictions that prevent a collecting society from offering licences to commercial users outside their domestic territory.
According to the EC, the decision will allow "collecting societies to compete on the quality of their services and on the level of their administrative costs (which are deducted from the money collected before it is passed on to the author). It will thus provide incentives to collecting societies to improve their efficiency".
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