COPYRIGHT: COMMISSION PROPOSES EU-WIDE LICENCES FOR ON-LINE MUSIC.

"Europe's model of copyright clearance belongs more to the nineteenth century than to the twenty-first", said Mr McCreevy in a speech to a UK Presidency Conference on copyright issues on October 7. "It is not efficient for content users and it does not serve the interests of right-holders who want their content disseminated as widely as possible." The new recommendations put forward by the Commission envisage scrapping territorial restriction and customer allocation provisions in existing licensing contracts. Those right-holders can alternatively appoint a collective rights manager for the on-line use of their musical works across the entire EU, known as "EU-wide direct licensing".

The European system of copyright management is currently carried out on a country-by-country basis. This is costly, and may be preventing Europe from taking full advantage of the opportunities available in a digital music market worth an estimated $330 million in 2004. The failure to provide cheap legitimate on-line music services is also seen as encouraging illegal downloading and music piracy. European Regional Counsel Olivier Regnier from IFPI, an organisation representing the...