Abstract

Various opt-out systems are slowly but steadily paving their way from the outskirts of the copyright law to its centre. What was once a special instrument of a handful of Nordic countries has now become accepted and welcomed solution to many licensing hardships. Yet, the fact that proper introduction of Extended Collective Licensing (ECL) requires a careful setting of its parameters is not always realized. This paper offers a critical account of existing ECL mechanisms and evaluates, whether this licensing model has been properly domesticated outside Scandinavia. After the mapping of current ECL landscape, some estimates for the future of ECL in EU will be offered.