Online music licensing: the calm after the storm

Reviews the responses to the European Commission consultation on proposals to exploit the potential of digital music distribution by reforming collective cross border management of copyright. Highlights areas of consensus, concerns over the basis on which the Commission identified the present system's inequalities and the responses relating to the use of blanket agreements, competition among collecting societies and the factors neglected by the study. Details the Commission's responses in its October 2005 Recommendation on Collective Cross-Border Management of Copyright and Related Rights for Legitimate Online Music Services, including those relating to transparency, royalty distribution and the avoidance of discrimination among rights holders