Collective management is the exercise of copyright and related rights by organisations known as collective management organisations (CMOs) or collecting societies, which act in the interest and on behalf of the owners of rights and ensure that creators receive payment for the use of their works.
The Tallinn Circuit Court finally and definitively determined the action in the “blank tape levy” court case. This landmark court case had been pending since February 2013, when the authors’, performers’ and phonogram producers’ collecting societies initially filed their complaint against the Government of the Republic of Estonia. During the litigation, the case was reviewed…
14 April 2018 saw the entry into force of Spanish Royal Decree-Law 2/2018, of 13 April, amending the wording of the Spanish Copyright Act. This reform transposes two Directives into Spanish law, namely: Directive 2017/1564 of the European Parliament and of the Council on certain permitted uses of certain works and other subject matter protected…
Almost seven years ago, Directive 2011/77/EU – also called the Term Extension Directive – was passed. As mentioned in the Impact Assessment that accompanied the Proposal for the Directive, its general objective was to promote music production in the EU. The Impact Assessment also referred to specific objectives, which included contributing to enhancing the welfare…
The first part of this post discussed the implementation of the Directive in Greece. As shown, the implementation of the Directive was seen as an occasion to impose a mechanism of stricter control of CMOs, especially when they face significant financial difficulties. The implementation of the Directive in Greece was made significantly more complicated due…
Four years have passed since the adoption of Directive 2014/26/EU on collective management of copyright and related rights. The Directive aimed to provide a remedy for certain of the pathogenies of collective management organisations (CMOs), which have been often denounced for their lack of transparency and abusive practices, but also came as a response to…
This post was first published on the new Kluwer Regulating for Globalization Blog. On September 14, 2017, the EU Court of Justice issued a preliminary ruling in Case C-177/16, Akka-Laa, on excessive pricing in the collective management of copyright licences. In 2013, the Latvian Competition Council fined Akka-Laa for abusing its dominance by imposing too…
Following an interlocutory question from the French Council of State, in a dispute concerning the legality of the decree of 27 February 2013 on the application of the law of 1 March 2012 on the digitisation of out-of-print books of the 20th century, the Court of Justice of the European Union (Case C-301-15) rightfully stated that…
A full summary of this case has been published on Kluwer IP Law and the case has been discussed on the Kluwer Copyright Blog here. The CJEU held that EU law, particularly Article 5(2)(b) of Directive 2001/29, precludes national legislation that subjects exemption from payment of the private copying levy for producers and importers of…
A full report of this case has been published on Kluwer IP Law The Supreme Court of Estonia analysed the conditions under which the public performance of works at a school concert falls within the free use exception. In principle, the Supreme Court agreed with the courts of lower instance by holding that the public…
The Estonian court recently examined the conditions under which the public performance of works at a school concert falls within the free use exception. The Estonian Authors’ Society (an authors’ collecting society) filed a claim against the City of Tartu (through the City Government of Tartu), which administers Miina Härma Gymnasium and had organised a…
