Could technology override economics in the case of the Digital Copyright Exchange?

Economic analysis of collective rights administration has so far strongly supported the natural monopoly case for single national collecting societies for particular bundles of rights protected by territorially based copyright law and the courts have gone along with that view. Digitization in the music industry has affected the economics of the internal administration of copyright within the PRS for Music (as an example) in addition to its  well known effect on consumption of music which brings with it the need for transactional and multi-territorial licensing.

In her talk at the Institute for Science, Technology and Innovation at the University of Edinburgh,  Ruth Towse asks if this alters that case: could competition work in collective licensing. She also questions the view in the Hargreaves and Hooper reports that competition can be stimulated by a technological ‘answer’ in the form of the Digital Copyright Exchange (now the Digital Copyright Hub).

Ruth Towse’s talk can be viewed here: