E.U. Passes Directive on Collective Copyright Management

By Min Wu

The European Parliament passed a new directive regulating the practice of authors handing their right to collect copyright licensing fees over to collective management organizations, according to IP-Watch. 

Under the new directive, the authors will be given the right to choose from different collective management organizations. The directive also sets clear deadlines for payment of the fees to the authors. Importantly, collective management organizations have to open up for alternative licenses such as Creative Commons. A European Union directive is a legislative act of the European Union, requiring the implementation by individual countries to achieve certain results.