EU Lays Out New Plans on Piracy, Music Rights

The European Commission set out its plans to overhaul intellectual property rules in the 27-nation bloc, including enforcement of rules on digital piracy; creating a legal framework for cross-border management of music copyright; and modernizing trademark rules, the EU's executive arm said.

"Ensuring the right level of protection of intellectual property rights in the single market is essential for Europe's economy," EU Internal Markets Commissioner Michel Barnier said. "Our aim today is to get the balance between these two objectives right for IPR across the board." Music copyright management is one area the commission will tackle. Currently, music rights are licensed mainly on a national basis, but the Internet has fundamentally changed the way it is bought and sold.

The EU will work on proposals to simplify this, establishing common rules for copyright collecting societies, which collect royalties then pay them out to artists and record companies. It also plans to create a "clear and well-functioning legal framework for the multiterritorial licensing" so music can be made available in multiple countries, a service which currently relies on reciprocal agreements between various different licensing companies. As well as making it simpler to license music for legal distribution, the EU also plans to reinforce its fight against piracy and illegal downloads, citing industry figures that these practices cost European music, movie, and TV industries over €10 billion ($14.05 billion) in 2008. It has proposed a regulation to give extra powers to the European Observatory on Counterfeiting and Piracy, a public-private group set up to protect intellectual property rights.