Autorių ir gretutinių teisių kolektyvinio administravimo teritorinių ribojimų perspektyvos Europos Sąjungoje

Abstract

The current international system of collective management of copyright and related rights is based on reciprocal agreements concluded between collective management organizations (CMOs) operating in different countries. Traditionally, reciprocal agreements impose territorial restrictions on CMOs’ activities: a CMO can license the repertoire of other CMOs only in the territory of its establishment and only national CMOs have an exclusive right to administer (license) this repertoire in their territory. Territorial restrictions are present in the reciprocal agreements entered into between CMOs operating in the European Union (the EU) countries. The European Court of Justice in its case-law seems to justify such territorial restrictions. This position is supported by the European Parliament. The European Commission, however, in its decisions and legal acts finds territorial restrictions incompatible with the EU law. The European Commission favours the licensing scheme (model) applied in the EU under which: firstly, each CMO has a right to provide a license to its repertoire (both local and foreign) in the entire EU territory; secondly, such a licensing scheme should contain no territorial restrictions and should be based on the competition of all CMOs operating in the EU.