Report Calls For Uniformity Among Euro Rights Bodies

The structure and activities of royalty collection bodies need to be harmonized throughout Europe, according to European Member of Parliament Raina Mercedes Echerer of Austria's Green Party.

Her draft report on the subject-revealed yesterday at a Parliament hearing on copyright and performing rights (Bulletin, Oct. 7)-says collection societies differ widely across the European Union, with varying degrees of effectiveness.

The report calls for "comparable, efficient, independent, regular, transparent and expert control mechanisms throughout the EU," including appropriate procedures for settling cross-border disputes. Echerer proposes uniform coding standards for copyrighted works, as well as an efficient exchange of information between collection societies.

Also during the hearing, a body that represents the catering industry, HOTREC, attacked the system under which hotels and restaurants must pay collecting bodies. HOTREC called for a market-driven system, wherein tariffs are negotiated, copyright fees are collected once only at the source of transmission and payment is for services used, rather than upfront.

Independent labels body Impala defended the current system, arguing that it is simply too expensive for small companies to grant individual licences.