Last Friday, the Dutch Secretary of Security and Justice Mr. Fred Teeven, responded to Parliamentary questions on the proposed reform of Dutch copyright law. 

The letter by Mr. Teeven includes the following points: 

• Mr. Teeven agrees with Liberal MP Joost Taverne, that the government could support efforts to set up one central collecting society (“collectieve beheerorganisatie”) 
• The Secretary of Justice recognises the importance of the development of new business models on the Internet and seems to be open minded about a proposal made by the Liberal Democrat party (D66) that applies a type of copyright licensing arrangements currently in use by radio stations to the Internet. He stated that the replacement of the individual exercise of music rights by a mandatory collective legal action might benefit artists. 
• Mr. Teeven also finds it important that collecting societies be subject to stricter rules of transparency and oversight and that external supervision on European level has to be arranged properly. The Secretary of Justice wants to reduce the management costs of distribution organisations such as Lira, SENA and Pictoright. A significant part of funds collected on behalf of intellectual property right holders are in fact used for the management costs (“beheerkosten”) of these organisations. Mr. Teevens says he wants more control on these distribution organisations, because the collected funds have to flow to the right owners and not disappear within the collective management organisations. 

Secretary Teevens view on collecting societies is shared by his colleague Maxime Verhagen, Minister of Economic Affairs. In a letter on the agenda of the upcoming Informal Council of Competitiveness in Copenhagen, the importance of strengthening the Digital market is being emphasized by Mr. Verhagen. However, current copyright legislation forms a barrier for the proper functioning of the Digital internal market, according to the Dutch Cabinet. The Netherlands finds it important to reduce territorial restrictions for granting copyright licenses and collecting royalties.  According to the Netherlands, a possible solution may be to set up one collecting society in each EU Member State, a so-called ‘one-stop shop’ for collective rights management. 

Read the full letter of State Secretary Teeven here (in Dutch)

By: Deniece Teterissa