Emerging Models for Cross-Border Online Licensing and User-Generated Law

Digital service providers like Spotify, YouTube or Soundcloud have made interactive on-demand streaming the main form of music consumption via the Internet. The book chapter takes a look at the developments in the publishing licensing landscape for online music in Europe under the user generated law framework. According to this framework, "law that accommodates the needs of the knowledge society" is characterized by (1) flexible norms (2) with cross-border scope and (3) which are industry- and subject-specific. This chapter revisits the developments in the field with regards to licensing arrangements and tests whether the user generated law methodology can construe the emerging legal regulatory (based on contracts and laws) and non-regulatory models (based on technology and social norms). First, the chapter examines the emergence of cross-border licensing models for online use, revisiting the distinct phases of model contracts, multi-territorial mono-repertoire licensing entities, licensing hubs, and the most recent forms of licensing and related regulatory activities (Directive 2014/26/EU). In its second part, the chapter analyses how well these developments accord with the user generated law methodology. Does the example of online licensing pass all phases of the theoretical model? Why have the licensing arrangements been created in the first place? Do determinants from the methodological model have an influence on the emergence of the specific user generated law? The chapter concludes with some broader observations on the applicability of the user generated law model