Copyright news anyone? Well, here goes. A new proposal is expected from the European Commission this week in a bid to find a way to overcome the complicated nature of music copyright across Europe. As previously reported, all of the major download platforms like iTunes and Napster have expressed concerns about the way in which copyright works in Europe, where collection societies in each country use different systems, making pan-European operations very bureaucratic and, the download platforms argue, overly complicated and, therefore, expensive.
It is to address those concerns that the European Commission has been looking into copyright, and at ways to persuade or force each country's collection societies to adopt a common system. How easy the Commission find it to win the support of those societies remain to be seen, though European Competition Commissioner Neeilie Kroes recently pledged to play hard ball, if necessary, to get a pan-European system in place, telling reporters: "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".
The EC proposals are expected on Wednesday.