The Collective Management of Music Copyright in China, the United States and Australia

This chapter provides an overview of the frameworks of collective management of music copyright in China, the United States and Australia. This chapter first analyses the regulatory systems on collective management of music copyright in each of these three countries, and then it compares the functions of musical collective management organisations and describes the structural similarities and differences of the models in these countries. The comparison of the structures provides an understanding of the attitudes that these three countries have towards the collective management of music copyright.

This chapter concludes that the Music Copyright Society of China appears unable to work effectively for music creators in China, identifying two major problems that the organisation faces: inadequate regulatory rules of the organisation’s operations and a lack of members’ rights in the organisation, as well as a challenge common to all three countries: namely, ineffective international cooperation between musical collective management organisations. The case studies in this chapter provide a basis for discussion on regulation of the Music Copyright Society of China’s monopoly, members’ rights in the organisation, and international cooperation among collective management organisations in the next three chapters, respectively.