Draft secondary legislation to regulate collecting societies
Collecting societies licence a range of copyright works. Efficient licensing benefits both their members and their licensees.
The government’s policy intention is to strengthen confidence in the operation of collecting societies in support of these benefits. As such, it has taken a power in the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act that requires collecting societies to self-regulate in the first instance. The power also allows the government to make secondary legislation to remedy and, where warranted, penalise gaps in self-regulation.
The draft secondary legislation to achieve this, to be known as The Copyright (Regulation of Relevant Licensing Bodies) Regulations 2014, is the subject of this consultation.
Given the extensive formal consultation on the policy and discussions about it, including in the Codes Working Group, respondents are invited to submit substantive comments on the legal effectiveness of the regulations only. The policy is out of scope of this consultation.
This consultation is aimed at all interested parties across all sectors including: collecting societies, authors and creators, small businesses, voluntary organisations, libraries and universities.