Collective Management of Copyright & Related Rights

The European Union (Collective Rights Management) (Directive 2014/26/EU) Regulations 2014 (“the CRM Regulations”) were transposed into Irish law through S.I. No.156 of 2016 and are effective from 10 April 2016.

The Regulations act to incorporate into Irish lawEU Directive 2014/26/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2014 on collective management of copyright and related rights and multi-territorial licensing of rights in musical works for online use in the internal market (“the CRM Directive”). The CRM Directive is intended to benefit rightholders, commercial users of copyright content and consumers through transposition by all EU Member States . The Directive has two main aims:

(i) to ensure that collective management organisations (“CMOs”) act in the best interests of the rights holders they represent by placing minimum standards of governance, financial management and transparency on all European CMOs and ensure that rightholders have a say in the management of their rights; and

(ii) to facilitate the multi-territorial licensing of authors’ rights in musical works for online uses.

The Directive obliges Member States establish a national competent authority to monitor compliance and impose sanctions where necessary. It is the Member State in which each CMO is established (i.e. where it’s headquarters is situated) that dictates which national legislation applies, and the Competent Authority in that Member State oversees the compliance and sanctions regime. The Regulation provides that the Controller of Intellectual Property is the competent authority in Ireland for the purposes of the regulations.

In Ireland, the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 requires that a CMO must register with the Controller as a licensing body before it may operate as such a body and must maintain its registration in order to continue to operate. Under the CRM Regulations an annual compliance statement must be submitted to the Controller together with the documentation necessary to renew a registration.

Guidance Notes on the CRM Regulations have been prepared in order to assist CMOs and rightholders, members of CMOs and users to understand their obligations under the Regulations. The Guidance Notes also include information on the format and content of the compliance statement as well as templates for a short overarching narrative statement as well as a more detailed statement which will enable CMOs to demonstrate how compliance with every specific regulation is being achieved and where necessary provide an explanation for any non-compliance. 

Official-Guide-Notes-for-CRM-Regulations

For further information on Collective Management Organisations such as examples of legislation, regulation and codes of conduct in the area of collective management from around the world please see Collective Management of Copyright (wipo.int) for the latest version of WIPO’s “Good Practice Toolkit for Collective Management Organizations.”