European Composers To Protest

[OneThrow]

A story I thought might be of interest to composers both sides of the pond.

http://www.musicweek.com/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=1034735&c=1

The EU are considering making collecting societies compete on price. The European Songwriter and Composers Alliance are against this and intend to hand in a petition of protest with letters of support from David Gilmour and Michel Legrand among others. The ESCA would like to see cross boarder licensing which would be relevant in today's world of the internet and satellite broadcasting.

[peter5992]

I don't really understand why EU Commission wants to go after the collecting agencies - I think they don't understand the way the music business works, I mean what does it mean for collecting agencies to have to start "competing on price"? Does that mean that the French collecting organization should try to get business in Germany or something?

Can somebody please send Neelie Smit Kroes back to Rotterdam ... hope that they can talk this nonsense out of her head.