The Proposed Directive on Multi-Territorial Licensing for Online Music – Is Competition a Good Idea?

Abstract

Traditionally, collecting societies worked on a territorial basis, granting single repertoire and territorially restricted licences. Their activities had been, to a considerable extent, subject to competition law based intervention. Internet has challenged territoriality and, at the same time, created new forms of exploitation of works. On that basis, the former justification for territoriality was put into question by some commentators and the Commission itself. Building on former initiatives and case law, the Commission has on July 2012 presented a proposal for a Directive which, among other things, addresses this problem, establishing a scheme for multi-territorial licensing for online music. This paper briefly evaluates the Proposal in that regard, concluding that it should be abandoned.

Keywords: copyright, Competition Law, Collective Rights Management, Multi-territorial Licensing, Collecting Societies,reciprocal representation agreements; musical works, online services, exclusive rights

JEL Classification: O34, K11, K19, K21, L41, L43