The Commission of the European Union has published a Communication on copyright collecting societies, titled "The Management of Copyright and Related Rights in the Internal Market". The press release is here.
The Commission observes that copyright based industry contribute more than 5 percent of Community-wide GNP.
It then calls for interoperability of DRM measures, which is also a goal of industry initiatives in the field, and considers issueing a recommendation to reinforce interoperability. The Commission also addresses the potential for DRM to block more uses by technology than are blocked by law (page 10):
"In this respect, the Commission is also under a duty to examine within the context of the Article 12 Contact Committee, whether acts permitted by law are being adversely affected by the use of effective technological measures (so called 'technological lock-up')."
They also think that EU legislation on collecting societies is necessary to satisfy the need for Community-wide licensing, also with a view to lowering administrative costs by enabling more competition between collecting societies.
Interested parties are requested to comment to the Commission by e-mail before June 21.
Posted by Karl-Friedrich Lenz at April 21, 2004 02:15 PM | TrackBack