EU to Consider Proposal on Pan-European Copyright License

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 5, 2009 - 12:10pm.

Strasbourg, France - The European Parliament will soon consider a proposal to create a single, pan-European license for the sales of online content between various European countries, ending a byzantine system of differing collecting societies and varying copyright fees between neighboring nations, The New York Times reported.

Currently, companies like Apple are forced to sell the same songs at different price points at its iTunes Stores in different E.U. countries, and many online retailers require that consumers make purchases with a credit card issued in the country in which they are based.

"The offer of content online is growing more and more but the current regime is still locked into national territorial licensing, with the result that E.U. consumers are often prevented from legally watching content anytime, anywhere and on any platform," reads a copy of the proposal, to be introduced by European telecommunications and media commissioner Viviane Reding, and consumer affairs commissioner Meglena Kuneva.

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/nm/20090505/tc_nm/us_eu_telecoms_1

http://ec.europa.eu/eyouguide