Legitimität und Krise urheberrechtlicher Verwertungsgesellschaften

Collective rights management has to embrace its original raisons d’être if collecting societies shall be entitled to raise the argument of their special legitimacy during judicial process and reform. The work sketches in its first part those characteristics of collecting societies which ideally account for their legitimacy. Economic, social and cultural functions of collecting societies are analysed from an utilitarian perspective; furthermore the realization of the state’s and rights holders’ constitutional interests is considered. The second part discusses the deficiencies of collective rights management, in particular against the background of the conflict concerning publishers’ participation in VG-WORT distributions and the Collective Rights Management Directive (2014/26/EU). The work concludes that any deviations from the ideal which can be stated in practice cannot justify a reform insofar as existing strucutres of legitimacy within collective rights management would be eliminated.