EU Zeroing in on VCL nose

In the nose, the European Commission is proposing a pan-European system for promoting music. The article says,

“The Commission published a study on the current position in July, concluding that the absence of pan-European copyright licences makes it difficult for new European-based online services, such as simulcasting (a simultaneous broadcast of programs or events across more than one medium) and webcasting (where a broadcast is uploaded by the sender and downloaded by the receiver), to take off.

In particular, it found that the present structures for cross-border collective management of music copyright – which were developed for the analogue environment – prevent music from fulfilling its unique potential as a driver for online content services.”

They have a good layout of options:

-do nothing;

-improve cooperation among collecting societies by allowing each society in the EU to grant a EU-wide license covering the other societies’ repertoires; or

-give right-holders the choice to appoint a collective rights manager for the online use of their musical works across the entire EU.