EUROPEAN CONTINENT-WIDE LICENSING SYSTEM

Jan 1, 2006 12:00 PM, C. Deane

It's fair to predict (and hope) that the European Union will ditch its fragmented, bureaucratic, red-tape-ridden, country-specific licensing system in favor of a single continent-wide approach in 2006. The current systems are the targets of intensifying criticism because their often-archaic policies, schedules and approaches make it extremely difficult to get clearances necessary to distribute digital music via legal channels (as Apple, Sony and others can attest). Until now, frustration has been steady but not feverish, but there is truth in numbers; the growth of the digital music industry as a whole in 2005 has highlighted the fact that there are significant revenue sources for the continent as a whole that are being passed up due to the difficulty of getting clearances. With file sharing on a steady rise through the EU, the powers that be are under more pressure than ever to make it easy for users to access music legally. As the European Competition Commissioner put it recently, “I am committed to ensuring that the licensing system does not hamper the development of a genuine European single market between collecting societies to the benefit of these artists and consumers.” Fingers are crossed. Streamlining of the clearance process would mean tens of thousands of people more likely to be on a legal service and off of an illegal one.

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