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IP office publishes minimum standards for collecting societies
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 24 October 2012
The UK Intellectual Property Office has published a ‘minimum standards’ document for collecting societies that represent groups of rights owners in collective licensing scenarios, so in music that is PRS For Music and PPL, of course.
The document stems from the previously reported government-instigated review of the UK copyright system by Ian Hargreaves, which also led to the launch of the ‘digital copyright exchange’ project and various other proposed reforms which are in the process of being translated into legislation.
UK collecting societies will be expected to ensure that the minimum standards set out in the document, which cover fairness, transparency and good governance, are met by their own codes of conduct. An independent review of each society’s code will then take place in a year’s time.
The code has been developed in consultation with UK collecting societies and their users, and the minimum standards are intended to be a ‘living document’ so that revisions can be made as new issues arise, most likely linked to new digital developments.
You can read the code here.
