consultation
9 September 2013Copyright

UK wants answers on regulating collecting societies

The UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has asked for public feedback on the effectiveness of draft legislation that governs the regulation of collecting societies.

Collecting societies are meant to self-regulate under existing laws but the government wants to introduce secondary legislation to remedy and, where warranted, penalise gaps in self-regulation.

To achieve this, the IPO has proposed The Copyright (Regulation of relevant licensing bodies) Regulations 2014. It includes measures such as issuing fines of up to £50,000 ($78,500) for failing to self-regulate properly.

The government said it would implement sanctions on collecting societies only if there is “robust evidence” and for “serious and persistent breaches”.

Collecting societies manage rights for different individual entities, licensing copyright and recouping royalties. In the UK, collective bodies include PRS for Music, the Newspaper Licensing Agency and Phonographic Performance Limited.

After previous consultations on regulating collecting societies, “there was general agreement on the scope of the government’s proposed minimum standards, including the presence of an independent ombudsman and code reviewer”, the IPO said.

The draft regulations allow the Secretary of State to appoint a code reviewer to analyse and report on industry codes of practice, as well as an ombudsman to investigate and determine complaints about complying with codes.

Licensees support these measures, the IPO said, while most collecting societies and some rights holders prefer a purely self-regulatory body.

One of the eight questions in the current consultation, which assesses the legal effectiveness of the regulations, not the policy itself, asks what the principle features determining a code reviewer or ombudsman’s suitability should be.

Another asks whether 28 days, the time a collecting society has to adopt a code of practice after being directed to, is sufficient.

The consultation, open until October 7, asks for feedback on other topics such as the graduated scale (up to £50,00) for issuing fines and the General Regulatory Chamber, a tribunal body which is likely to hear appeals on sanctions.

Adam Rendle, associate at Taylor Wessing LLP, said he expects a positive response to the consultation.

“Every collecting society in the UK is likely to respond, either individually or collectively through an organisation such as the British Copyright Council. Creator representatives (ie. representing members of the collecting societies, such as the Featured Artists Coalition) and some major users of collecting society licences (such as broadcasters, universities and libraries) are also likely to respond.”

The regulations should be in force in either April or October 2014, “depending on how quickly the IPO can process the comments it receives and put the regulations before parliament”, Rendle said.

The new rules, part of a wider attempt to modernise the UK’s copyright system, fall against the backdrop of the proposed Collective Rights Management Directive, currently being negotiated in Europe. The directive aims to introduce better standards for the operation of EU collecting societies, but the UK’s position on it is not directly affected by the consultation on the regulations, the IPO said.

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