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Libraries should pay copyright owners based on number of works and borrowers, says ECJ


The compensation that music artists and film producers are due when their copyrighted material is made temporarily available to the public should not be exclusively based on set fees, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has said.

Organisations that loan or rent copyrighted material available to the public should have to pay compensation based on the harm it does to rightsholders, the ECJ said. It said compensation levels should be determined by the number of copyrighted works organisations make available and the number of people who can access them (For full report see out-law.com).