The EU’s framework for collective licensing rests on Extended Collective Licensing, or ECL. Under ECL, a CMO is authorized by law to license works on behalf of all rightsholders in a given category — even those who never signed up. The idea is elegant: one blanket license, one payment stream, universal coverage. The trouble starts with what happens after the money is collected.
Source: The Licensing Mirage: Why Collective Models Won’t Save the Visual Industry from AI