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<b><i>Commentary:</b></i> Comparing Collective Licensing Proposals For Internet Licensing of Copyrighted Content

By Steven Masur
July 29, 2010

Advances in digital distribution technologies and widespread use of the Internet have moved media distribution technology out of the control of rights holders and distributors, and directly into the hands of consumers or creative members of the general public. To address how U.S. copyright law should apply to new business models that take advantage of these technologies, some have proposed collective rights licensing at the Internet service provider (ISP) level. It is proposed that a fee for use and sharing of media accessed on the Internet should be applied at the ISP point of access.

While there have been many proposals for collective rights licensing schemes, most proposals fall into two camps: a legislatively introduced public right or a privately implemented opt-in arrangement. Under the former, the government-mandated public right is collected as a payment on a user's ISP or mobile phone bill and distributed through a third-party organization to rights holders. Under the latter, rights holders would sign a covenant not to sue any user who opts-in to pay licensing fees for content accessed by that user.

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