SAA publishes comments on EC Collective Rights Management proposal

SAA has welcomed the proposal and is looking forward to working with the European Parliament and Council.  Together it should be possible to ensure a robust directive that provides a level playing field and fits different national and sectoral systems of collective management in a way that works for creators, consumers and users.

SAA’s main points are:

• Collective management organisations (CMOs) are not pure service providers: they play a crucial role in the promotion of cultural diversity and are entrusted with a social mission in favour of their members.
• The proposal is based on the predominant music model of voluntary collective management of all music authors’ rights, whereas CMOs from other sectors, in particular in the audiovisual sector, work in a different environment which implies different practices and needs.
• Commercial operators carrying out the same activities of rights management as CMOs should be subject to the requirements of the directive to preserve a level playing field.
• CMOs from outside the EU but operating within it should be subject to the same requirements as EU CMOs.
• Obligations on users must be added to ensure that CMOs receive accurate and timely consumption data on works to be able to distribute royalties to authors rapidly and efficiently.
• The CMO obligations provided by the directive should be necessary and proportional to the aimed objective, and take into account existing national regulations.

You can read the detailed comments here (also available in French here).  The Commission’s proposal for a directive is available here.