Industry joint statement on the Directive on Collective Rights Management

The digital industry has collaborated to provide a collective voice on the proposed Directive on Collective Rights Management ahead of the vote in the lead committee (Legal Affairs Committee, JURI).

Brussels, July 2013 the digital industry (represented by the European Digital Media Association (EDiMA), DIGITALEUROPE, BITKOM, EuroISPA, the European Competitive Telecommunications Association (ECTA), the Coalition for a Digital Economy (Coadec), and Mixcloud) has collaborated to provide a collective voice on the proposed Directive on Collective Rights Management. The proposed Directive aims to establish important principles to ensure that collecting societies efficiently administer the rights and represent the interests of their members and should help improve the efficiency of the licensing process as well as promote new services for the benefit of European consumers, creators, and cultural diversity.

The industry group’s joint statement emphasized key principles and criteria which should be enhanced and maintained in the course of amendment considerations including:

• ensuring repertoire transparency;
• removing obstacles to the Digital Single Market;
• enabling commercial flexibility in negotiations for digital music services;
• ensuring operational transparency of Collective Management Organisations;
• guaranteeing workable reporting processes.

Signatories of this joint statement include:

EDiMA
EuroISPA
DIGITALEUROPE
BITKOM
ECTA
Coadec
Mixcloud