INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY: GESAC ATTACKS COLLECTIVE RIGHTS MANAGEMENT DIRECTIVE.

• Position: Groupement European Des Societies D'Auteurs Et Compositeurs

GESAC stresses the cultural, economic and social role collecting societies play. Created by and for authors, their sole mission is to argue the case for and serve the interests of their members.

The principle of territorial application is crucial and the Commission is quite right to stress this, according to GESAC. Rights management is based on this principle. The emergence of the Internet cannot be used as a reason for calling this into question, denying the very principle of intellectual property rights. GESAC also brushes aside the argument that a request for pan-European licences would justify a Directive, as there is nothing to show that EU rules would make it easier for them to be applied. Right-holders are able to establish suitable, market-tailored solutions on a voluntary basis, and no solution should be set in stone. GESAC believes competition law should be applied by taking account of the specific characteristics of a copyright and the societies managing it.

Conversely, GESAC is supportive of the Commission assertion that digital rights management systems are not a viable alternative to a copyright policy or to collecting companies. However, it disagrees with the Commission idea that these systems should be used solely by individual right-holders, with collecting...