The impact of the trasposition of Directive 2019/790/EU on collective rights management in the book sector

Abstract

The transposition of Directive 2019/790/EU has introduced important novelties regarding the use in the digital environment of works protected by copyright that may open up interesting scenarios on the collective rights management in the book sector. In particular, new balances are emerging between direct individual management by rightholders, which remains the main practice in the sector, and the activities of collective management organisations. The provision for the prevalence of voluntary licences over the educational exception and the manner in which the management of rights in out-of-commerce works and, more generally, in cases of extended collective licences, prefigure a coexistence of forms of direct and collective management. In the case of the educational exception, rightholders may, on a voluntary basis, mandate collective management organisations to grant licences to educational establishments (opt-in); in the case of out-of-commerce works, rightholders may exercise an opt-out, excluding their works from the collective management regime provided for by the rules.
The new regulatory framework takes note of the new opportunities opened up by technologies in the area of copyright and related rights management in the digital environment where the simultaneous presence of multiple regimes (from creative commons licences to the services of different intermediaries for the management of commercial licences) is increasingly the rule.