Last July, the European Commission unveiled a proposal for a Directive in the field of collective management of copyright (COM (2012) 372 final).
This proposal aims to simplify the license management system and establish some base conditions under which it will be possible (and, in some cases, even mandatory) for collecting societies to provide the holders the chance to spread their music rights online, through a system of multi-territorial licenses.
The proposal is based on the principle of freedom to provide services within the EU and, on one hand, establishes the requirements collecting societies must respect, in order to be able to provide multi-territorial licenses; on the other hand, it states that, after a transition period without the collecting society to provide such services, the holders of rights shall be entitled to grant multi-territorial licenses directly or through another intermediary.
Overall, the Directive (if still a proposal) is convincing and correctly aimed to modernize the management of music rights.
However, we cannot fail to notice that similar proposals concerning collective management of audiovisual rights are still progressing at a slower pace than the one at hand, thus favoring the appropriation of such rights on the basis of contractual rules which are difficult to counter by sovranational entities, in the absence of clear and harmonized guidelines on policies for modern licensing, both at european and international level.