This is the opportunity to write a wish list

Posted Jan 10, 2026 15:53 UTC (Sat) by Wol (subscriber, #4433)
In reply to: This is the opportunity to write a wish list by Cyberax
Parent article: European Commission issues call for evidence on open source

> Radio stations solved that via mechanical rights. Each time a radio station plays a song, they pay a small fee to an organization that represents the collective rights of musicians. It then redistributes the fees as royalties.

But! And I don't know whether it describes the way things work in America, or over here, or both, but there have been plenty of studies that show mis-reporting by people playing music is rife. "We played this music by that artist on the other channel" - except that what is reported never happened when you check up (and the agencies never check, it's far too much work). It's not deliberate, people don't make notes at the time, and memory is fallible (don't I know it!!!)

This almost always favours the big artists. Then of course, there's the collection agencies fees and expenses - which are mostly flat rate. So little artists never get a penny because their royalties don't add up big enough. On top of being gouged by mis-reporting.

So this mechanism is probably going to seriously fail that lone developer in Nebraska, which probably covers 90% of the guys doing the work and needing support, and is much more likely to benefit the big guys who - frankly - probably don't need it.

It's going to have to be something like the little guys band together and form a collective, so they can appoint a collections agent with the authority (and ability) to say "I have a team of ten programmers (each with their own project) who have banded together to jointly offer a software CE mark on their projects". The agent can then distribute the money according to how much work everybody is doing (including themself :-), and everybody is on the hook to pile in and help should a CRA vulnerability arise.

Cheers,
Wol