Verwertung von Musikrechten

The exploitation of musical rights is subject to constant change. The legal aspects of this change are increasingly shaped by European legislation, with special attention having been paid to the online sector in the past few years. As a consequence, musical rights are no longer exclusively licensed via a network of collecting societies, but increasingly on a repertoire basis rather than on a territorial basis. Anglo-American publishers who control the mechanical rights of their repertoire are especially likely to make use of the new options created by the EU and have licenced their rights directly to digital service providers of music for more than a decade. From a legal point of view however, this is still a grey area and it remains uncertain if German law allows for this kind of licensing practice. The author assesses this controversial issue against the background of increasing harmonisation and proposes a new approach.