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European collecting societies should soon be better adapted to the requirements of the digital age. The Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament adopted today a report that sets a framework of common standards connecting the high respect for rightholders’ say in the management of their copyrights with a low threshold for consumers/citizens to easily access those cultural goods (mainly music, but also books or films) through borderless digital channels.
Cecilia WIKSTRÖM (Folkpartiet, Sweden), who is the ALDE Legal Affairs coordinator and the Group’s rapporteur on the issue, said: “I am happy that the Committee has managed to reach an agreement that clearly strengthens the individual composers’ and artists’ rights, while at the same time making it much easier to spread music across European borders. Particularly for a continent such as Europe which possesses a vast and rich repertoire of music to export, this new legislation will be extremely important.”
Toine MANDERS (VVD, Netherlands) who was the rapporteur for the Internal Market Committee on the issue, criticizes one important outcome: “We have missed the opportunity to introduce a single invoice for consumers which creates more transparency and provides stronger rights to the rightholders, I am convinced that the Commission and the Council will lift the monopolies of the collective rights organisations.“ |
