Digital Rights Management. The End of Collecting Societies?

The ubiquitous digitisation and the advent of Digital Rights Management Systems have created novel environments for content distribution and rights administration. The legal frameworks will indubitably have to evolve to match these new realities. The question whether the new technological infrastructures would render collective societies obsolete is part of this regulatory puzzle and needs to be adequately addressed in view of the balanced development of the Information Society. The present publication seeks to explore the different dimensions of collective rights management and to reassess the role of collecting societies in the digital era. The contributions of internationally renowned experts in the field of copyright and new technologies provide invaluable analyses from social and cultural policy, human rights and competition law aspects of the relation-ship 'DRMs vs. Collective Societies' and elaborate on its future implications.