Direct memberships in foreign copyright collecting societies as an entrepreneurial opportunity for music publishers – needs, challenges, opportunities and solutions

In the competitive, increasingly international music business, publishers are developing new ways to increase effectiveness and efficiency of the monetization of the copyrights they own or manage. Driven by various needs, publishers become entrepreneurs in new markets by choosing the path of direct memberships in foreign copyright collecting societies, rather than entrusting sub-publishers or taking the detour through their domestic copyright collecting society. Since with great power comes great responsibility, publishers as entrepreneurs are pursuing various economic opportunities, but at the same time are also facing great challenges. This paper aims at studying the motivation, obstacles and potentials and deriving possible solutions for this step and thus improving the understanding of as well as supporting publishers in this entrepreneurial activity.

Realizing Value

The chapter turns to the realization of revenues in the creative economy, illustrating how the economic value of intellectual property becomes identified and registered. Strategies include work for hire, direct sale, and licensing, often relying on market intermediaries and collecting societies. We illustrate how arriving at prices for singular products in an exchange can be difficult, either because of a lack of ‘equivalence’ or because creative producers must learn what needs to be taken into consideration. We also examine practices of valuation as producers try to maintain control of IPR through licensing agreements. We draw links between the structural forces identified earlier in the book, especially debates over creative labour and entrepreneurship in the creative industries—casualization, precarious labour, the oligopoly of corporations—and the quotidian activities of creative producers as they seek to realize substantial enough returns to allow them to continue in the business of creative work.

Reformbedarf für eine effizienzorientierte kollektive Wahrnehmung von Online-Rechten an Musikwerken

The ‘Collecting Societies Directive’ has allowed German legislators to aim at creating a uni-form level of regulation in terms of the multi-territorial licensing of rights in musical works for online use at the European level for the first time. In light of a so far nationally determined practice of collective licensing and the unsuccessful regulation policy of the EU in the past, the question arises of whether this new legal framework is an adequate response to structural economic inefficiencies within collecting societies’ system of rights management. In this study, Paul Rhode examines this harmonised regulation in the field of online music in the form of its transposition into German law, the VGG, taking into account the foundations of competition economics and new information technologies. On this basis, he detects a remaining factual and legal need for reform to create an efficient collective rights management system, which is currently experiencing an unprecedented transition phase due to globalisation and digitalisation.

12. Limits on exploitation

This chapter is concerned with the restrictions placed on the copyright owners’ ability to exploit and use their work. It first considers the various mechanisms that are used to regulate contracts between authors and entrepreneurs and then assesses the impact of competition law in the UK and Europe on the ability of copyright owners to exploit their works. It also looks at the ways in which copyright contracts are regulated with respect to users of copyright, along with the issue of orphan works. The chapter concludes by outlining the different controls that are imposed on collecting societies.

11. Exploitation and use of copyright

This chapter examines the ways in which copyright can be exploited or transferred, with emphasis on the two most important forms of exploitation: assignment and licensing. It also discusses the transfer of copyright in the case of mortgages, bankruptcy, or death, as well as situations in which compulsory licences and voluntary licences are used to exploit copyright. In addition, the chapter considers testamentary dispositions, techniques for exploiting works that rely on the use of technological protection measures, and the role of collecting societies in copyright exploitation. Finally, it looks at the hub platform for copyright licensing transactions which will eventually be integrated with the digital copyright exchanges.

The Creative Industry and South African Intellectual Property Law

This paper seeks to provide a more nuanced view of the creative industry that goes beyond assertions of its contribution to economic growth, which, it is then further argued, requires stringent copyright protection to ensure development. It argues that a critical first step is to optimize an existing copyright framework by addressing its inherent entrepreneurial challenges to better enable authors to garner economic returns. These challenges are identified before the paper delineates the creative industries in South Africa and related policies. It then turns to the ongoing copyright policy formulation process before setting out current and proposed copyright legislative provisions. The paper contends that essential aspects regarding both the creative and commercial aspects must be tackled first. At the creative stage, authors’ inability to use a large range of source works because of the fear of copyright infringement claims can be addressed by elaborating exceptions and limitations. On the commercial front, entrepreneurial capacity building for authors and curbing unfair author, publisher and intermediary contracts is vital. The use of statutory devices such as the reversionary interest, to recover lost or diminished opportunities to obtain direct financial gain from copyright work, could also be considered. Enhancing the viability of collecting societies and ensuring that royalties are paid to authors would also be a critical intervention.