In future, lyricists and composers in the European Economic Area will be able to choose which collecting society they want to assign the administration of their copyrights to. This antitrust decision was made by the EU Commission, as the NZZ reported on Thursday. This affects 24 European collecting societies, which were previously responsible for the administration of copyrights within a national framework and basically held a monopoly. The societies grant licenses for the use of musical works and texts and distribute the monies received to the authors. The decision also means that it will be easier to acquire a multi-territory license from a single collecting society for the transmission of music broadcasts via the Internet, cable or satellite in different countries. The dispute was triggered by an antitrust lawsuit filed by RTL and the online music provider Music Choice in January 2006. Parallel to the decision taken, but independently of it, the extension of copyright protection for sound recordings from 50 to 95 years was passed, although it is unclear what the fundamental decision to abolish the national monopoly of collecting societies will actually achieve. Musicians, for example, are already effectively free to choose their collecting society and can therefore also register with foreign societies. The multi-territorial licenses do not represent a revolution either, as they will be based on the existing reciprocal representation agreements of the national societies. With regard to the possible effects on non-EEA member Switzerland, the Swiss Music Collecting Society Suisa waves its hand to Werbewoche; it is still far too early to make an assessment and the situation must first be analyzed in more detail.

 
In future, lyricists and composers in the European Economic Area will be able to choose which collecting society they wish to entrust with the administration of their copyrights. This antitrust decision was made by the EU Commission, as the NZZ reported on Thursday. This affects 24 European collecting societies, which were previously responsible for the administration of copyrights within a national framework and basically held a monopoly. The societies grant licenses for the use of musical works and texts and distribute the money received to the authors. The decision also means that it will be easier to acquire a multi-territory license from a single collecting society for the transmission of music broadcasts via the Internet, cable or satellite in different countries. The dispute was triggered by an antitrust lawsuit filed by RTL and the online music provider Music Choice in January 2006. Parallel to the decision, but independent of it, the extension of copyright protection for sound recordings from 50 to 95 years was passed.
However, it is unclear what the fundamental decision to abolish the national monopoly of collecting societies will actually achieve. After all, musicians, for example, are already effectively free to choose their collecting society and can therefore also register with foreign societies. The multi-territorial licenses do not represent a revolution either, as they will be based on the existing reciprocal representation agreements of the national societies. With regard to possible effects on Switzerland, a non-member of the EEA, the Swiss Music Collecting Society Suisa waves its hand to Werbewoche; it is still far too early to make an assessment and the situation must first be analyzed in more detail.