The management and protection of author’s rights and related rights can be carried out either individually by each beneficiary separately or collectively, through the Collecting Societies and the Collective Protection Societies.
However, it is not always practically feasible for each beneficiary to control by himself the exploitation of his work, which can take place at any given moment, in any part of the world. Therefore, nowadays, collective management is unavoidable, especially due to the technological developments that make possible the reproduction and distribution of work very quickly, everywhere (television, radio, Internet, etc.).
By virtue of a special contract signed with the beneficiary, called delegation contract, the Collecting Societies undertake the management and protection of the beneficiary’s property right or part of his property authorities. The management delegation is in principle voluntary and depends on the will of the beneficiary. However, there are cases for which the law (see especially art. 54 para. 2, art. 57 para. 8, art. 5 para. 3, art. 49 para. 1, 4 and 5 and art. 18 para. 3-11 of Law 2121/1993) introduces an obligatory collective management or obligatory exercise of rights by a Collecting Society, as in the case of the collection of equitable remuneration deriving from private reproduction (art. 18 para. 3 -11).
Furthermore, the Collecting Societies, when managing the assigned rights, they provide the users (e.g. clubs) with a usage license for one or more ways of financial exploitation (e.g. public performance), they examine if the license terms are complied with, they collect the amount agreed based on the price list and they allocate this to the rightholders, after deducting the management expenses.
The national Collecting Societies sign mutual agreements with the foreign Collecting Societies, by virtue of which the foreign Collecting Societies are given the authority to represent the rights of the Greek rightholders abroad and vice versa.
The legal status of the Collecting Societies is described in articles 54-58 of Law 2121/1993. At present, there are 17 Collecting Societies in Greece and two Collective Protection Societies. They are all licensed by the Minister of Culture and supervised by the Hellenic Copyright Organization.
The new reality of the digital environment has not left the operation of the Collecting Societies intact.
On a community level, the creation of an institutional framework for the regulation of collective management, in view of this new reality, is already under study. The source of the general concern is the ascertainment that the Internet abolishes the limitations in copyright exploitation, while at the same time it further increases the international exploitation of digital forms of works. Consequently, the question is raised whether we should establish the right to provide "European licenses" for the exploitation of copyright with local validity throughout the European Union. This prospect is in agreement with the need to assure the transparent operation of Collecting Societies and, consequently, with the matter of regulating the institutional framework of their operation on a community level.
For the time being, on 18.5.2005, the Commission of the European Communities issued a Recommendation on Collective Cross-border Management of copyright and Related Rights for Legitimate On-line Music Services. This Recommendation urges member states to adopt the legislative regulations on the basis of which the copyright rightholders will be able to freely select the Collecting Society through which they will grant users with exploitation licenses for musical works over the Internet “of multi-territorial scope”, namely licenses that will cover the territory of more than one member state.
Societies themselves have already taken initiatives for a more effective accomplishment of their mission in the digital environment. A typical example is the mutual, trial Santiago Agreement, which has been signed by almost all the major Collecting Societies that represent authors and allows each of these to grant multiple territorial coverage licenses for the electronic exploitation of rights of public performance/presentation.
