0.4 Managing rights  (Page 8/11)

Reproduction rights, by contrast, are recognized in all countries. Collective management of those rights can be beneficial, especially for libraries, which would find it difficult to negotiate individual licenses for all of the circumstances in which they would like to reproduce materials in their collections -- and are not able to invoke one of the exceptions or limitations discussed in  Module 4 . The organizations that fulfill this function are commonly called Reproduction Rights Organizations (RROs). Their activities are discussed in detail in the  Handbook on Copyright and Related Issues for Libraries prepared by eIFL .

Some reformers have proposed using compulsory collective management to deal with the distribution of works on the Internet through peer-to-peer networks, arguing that such a system would benefit both users (by legalizing file-sharing of copyrighted material [currently unlawful in most countries]) and creators (by providing them with a reliable source of revenue).

An important and often attractive variation on the compulsory-collective-management model is known as "extended collective management." A system of this sort allows an organization to license the works of all copyright holders for a certain creative class once it represents a large percentage of the members of that class. This generally includes foreign and non-member copyright holders.

Collective management organizations often enter into agreements with their sister organizations in other countries in order to represent their repertoires. Sometimes such organizations are also organized into international networks. Examples include the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) and the International Federation of Reprographic Reproduction Organisations (IFRRO). These networks typically participate actively in negotiation of new copyright legislation at the international and national levels.

Technological protection measures

In recent years, the holders of the copyrights in works that are distributed in digital format -- such as software, digital sound recordings, digital video recordings, and electronic books -- have become increasingly dissatisfied with the rights that copyright law gives them and have sought to enhance those rights with  Technological Protection Measures , or TPMs. A simple form of TPM is a copy control -- a technology, often combining hardware and software, that prevents the possessor of a copy of the work from reproducing it. A more complex form is a region control -- for example, a mechanism that restricts the parts of the world in which a particular DVD can be played. Much more elaborate forms of TPMs have been developed recently.

The invention of TPMs enhanced the rights of copyright holders significantly. But soon they found that users employed other technologies to circumvent the TPMs, rendering them useless. To curb such circumventions, they turned once again to the legal system. In the 1996 WCT, they obtained an important weapon: a requirement that all member countries adopt prohibitions on TPM circumvention. The requirement has since been reinforced by regional agreements. For example, both the 2001 EU Information Society Directive and the revised Bangui Agreement (Annex VII, Title I, Part Five), which governs 15 francophone countries in Africa, contain anti-circumvention requirements.