CEPIC Issues

Statement on Collective Rights Management

Dec 30. 2007
09:12
by
CEPIC
Tags

With the growing number of collecting societies, there is an increasing need to define collective rights management as different European member states are permitting the collective management of different rights, so leading to a lack of harmonisation within Europe.

CEPIC believes that these rights need to be harmonised, especially in the new digital environment, so that:

  • a. authors receive an appropriate reward for the use of their work and the pursuit of creative avtivity
  • b. thus enabling authors to continue their creative and artistic work for which there would be little point if there were no adequate remuneration for exploitation of such work
  • c. stressing the importance of providing a high level of protection of intellectual property

The protection or creative and artistic works in this way will promote learning and culture especially in the public interest, education and teaching since new work will be generated and thus available.

The Memorandum of Understanding on Multi-media access to Europe's Cultural Heritage suggested the following recommendations in 1997:

  • "1. The existing individualised system of rights and fees management has proven itself efficient and should be retained.
  • 2. All systems should be based on individual rights clearance as well as on individual remuneration based upon single contractual agreements for specific works, circumstances, costs, usages, etc. Collective agreements should remain the ultima ratio limited to "small rights", mass usages that are difficult to control and (resulting) payments like levies."

CEPIC believes that this statement for multi-media and cultural heritage should be extended to all intellectual property rights, since it will achieve the aims listed above. It will also ensure that authors retain the exclusive right to authorise or prohibit any communication to the public of originals and copies of their works. Exercising their rights in practice through collective management effectively denies and author of a work the right to veto and control the use of that work.

CEPIC therefore proposes that collective management of rights only be applied when either:

  • a. Subsequent use of a work by a permitted user, where by the nature of the usage the rights holder would be impossible to identify
  • b. Subsequent use of a work generates a fee too small to be effectively collected in any other way
  • c. Subsequent use of a work is made by a permitted user who has no connection with any user authorised directly or indirectly by the rightsholder

Collection societies should not act outside the areas within which they have been set up to operate. This can lead to duplication of effort by different collecting societies and unneccessary usage of funds that should be going to the rights holder.

Collective rights should therefore apply only to the types of usage falling into brackets similar to those below:

  • a. Photocopy right
  • b. Public lending right
  • c. Internal use for schools, colleges and educational establishments
  • d. Levies on blank media such as video cassettes and CDs

CEPIC welcomes the recent directive suggesting that "collecting societies achieve a higher level of rationalisation and transparency" and suggest that there must be some sort of harmonisation of the rules and regulations governing them and their accountability to rights holders. It is also felt necessary that traditional rights organisations have reasonable access to RROs, especially regarding distribution of funds, to ensure that the right holders they represent receive fair remuneration for the exploitation of their works. Currently many organisations representing rights holders are excluded from membership of certain collecting societies. If collective rights being collected by a collecting society are due to a rights holder or organisation representing such, then membership should be open to them without question.

  • 1) Primary rights DIRECT Rights
    The Copyright Owner is identifiable
  • 2) Secondary rights (re-use)
    Residual rights (re-use in a different media)
    DIRECT Rights
    Where the Copyright Owner is identifiable
  • 3) Collective rights INDIRECT Rights
    The Copyright Owner is not identifiable

- THE END -
01.01.2000