The Research On The Feasibility Of Nordic Extended Collective Copyright Management System

Collective management system has been committed as an efficient tool to protect copyright holders’ right since it was built in 1830 s. Under the traditional collective management system, copyright holders can join the collective management organizations voluntarily and users can only be authorized by the CMOs to use the works in their repertoires. However, the development of science and technology has changed the mode of transmissions of works. In the condition of the request of vast amount of works, collective management system may collapse if CMOs are unable to offer blanket licenses and the users have to identify each work and each right contained in the repertoire instead.The extended collective license was adopted by the Nordic countries in 1960 s as a potential solution for rights clearance. According to the copyright acts of the Nordic counties, the extended collective license works as following: the license contract between the CMO who represents a substantial number of right holders and the users will be given the extended effect, which allows the users to use all the works in the same category but the right holders have the right to “opt-out” in the meanwhile. The legislator has attempted to transplant the Nordic extended collective license in China during the progress of the third revision of Copyright Law. The bill has caused lively discussion and disagreement on whether China should implement the extended collective license system.This article will focus on both the construction and experience of Nordic extended collective license, and the social root, including the cultural tradition and social organizations, which lead to the producing of the system to draw the conclusion that it necessary to transplant the extended collective license to respond the new challenges brought from new technology, but considering the imperfection of Chinese’s CMOs, it would be risky to totally use the experience of the Nordic countries for reference. Therefore, before carrying on the extended collective license in China, we should improve our existing collective management organizations by getting rid of the nature of "non-profit" and the trend of administrative, and improve the collection and distribution license fee system, strengthen supervision, enhance the reliability of CMOs and strive to create a culture of collective management of rights.