9 December 2015

GESAC welcomes the Commission’s intention to rebalance the transfer of value

On the Communication by the Commission “Towards a modern, more European copyright framework”

In the Communication adopted today, the Commission announced its ambition to rebalance the harmful transfer of value that currently defines the digital market for cultural content. A functioning market is one that includes those making the works. Today, many platform services claim to merely host user uploaded content or aggregate existing works. They often poorly, if at all, remunerate the creators whose works their business models are based on. GESAC welcomes the intention of the Commission to address this issue as a priority in its legislative initiative on copyright in 2016.

Nowadays, music, audiovisual works, photos, and images of visual art works are mostly available and shared through platform services like YouTube, Dailymotion, SoundCloud or Facebook. In fact, YouTube alone is the most popular access route to music in Europe. These platform services claim to be mere technical intermediaries and thus not liable for the copyright relevant content they provide access to.

This wrongful interpretation of the current law is harming creators, leading to market distortions that disadvantage legitimate online services like Spotify, Deezer or iTunes, and driving down the overall value of cultural content in the online environment. This is one of the most important issues for creators as regards their future in the digital market and requires a solution in the forthcoming copyright review.

“Sharing value fairly with those who feed the value chain is a perequisite for a functionning digital market place for creative works” explained GESAC General Manager Véronique Desbrosses in reaction to the Commission’s Communication. She added that “GESAC supports the constructive approach of the Communication on this key issue for creators and for the development of the Digital Market.”

Moreover, GESAC notes the Commission’s intention to further harmonise certain exceptions and is concerned by the absence of accompanying compensation schemes.

Furthermore, GESAC stresses that private copying remuneration shemes play a crucial role for creators and for the ecosystem of cultural creation in Europe and invites the Commission to carefully consider this point.

Regarding the “panorama exception”, GESAC emphasises that there is no need for further EU intervention, which would only create more uncertainty and would lead to an even weaker situation for the many struggling visual artists, while bringing no added value to market players.

GESAC will closely follow the Commission’s works on all aspects of the Communication to ensure in particular that the remuneration of authors can be further improved, and current developments on cross-border access can continue.

On the Proposal for a Regulation on Portability

GESAC also takes note of the Commission’s intention to ensure the portability of all online subscription services across the EU in a legislative proposal released today. Such services are already provided in the existing cross-border licences offered by authors’ societies.

See the full press release here.

Policies

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence brings about many new opportunities for our lives, including in the field of culture and creativity, but its applications also raise a number of ethical and legal questions due to their wide-spread uncontrolled and unchecked usage.

Policies

Music Streaming

Music streaming has unquestionably become the predominant means of enjoying music, replacing traditional physical media and expanded far beyond the live sector by providing user-friendly, high quality, and affordable access to the largest possible repertoire anytime, anywhere, online, or offline.

Songs and compositions are at the heart of this thriving market, which counts 524 million users on subscription-based music services globally, reaches more than 2 billion users including the streaming on UGC platforms, and offers more than 70 million tracks from approximately 8 million artists.

Yet, the authors and composers cannot benefit adequately from this success, and the debate over unfairness of this market is gaining traction across Europe and around the world.

There is a need to look more closely at how songwriters and composers are connected to this thriving economy and what can be done to improve their currently neglected situation.

Read below to find out more about the Music Streaming market.

Policies

Buy-out contracts: a dangerous threat to European creators

European music creators (composers, lyricists etc.) are being forced to forsake thousands of euros in future earnings by draconian ‘work made for hire’ (WMH) and buy-out contracts.

Online audiovisual services and broadcasters that are mainly US-based are forcing music creators to accept such contracts, which enforce a one-time payment in exchange for their rights.

Given the worldwide popularity of shows and series on platforms like Netflix, Amazon, Disney etc., and their replay value, the audiovisual market represents an important revenue stream for creators. Soundtracks alone are part and parcel of series and often attract a similar amount of popularity, massively boosting sales, streams and the worldwide fanbase of their authors.

Read below to find out how video on demand (VOD) platforms and broadcasters are circumventing EU law and what can be done about it.

Policies

Authors’ societies & the collective management model

Authors’ societies are hugely beneficial to both authors (creators), users (platforms and services), and the broader public.

Beyond benefiting these different groups, authors’ societies also support the broader cultural ecosystem by funding and promoting cultural and creative initiatives.

Below are five key benefits to authors’ societies and the collective management model.

Policies

The Copyright Directive

In April 2019, the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market was formally adopted, a change that will positively transform authors’ rights throughout the EU. Each member state now has until 7 June 2021 to transpose the Directive into their respective national law.

This reform is an opportunity to address pressing issues for authors in the Digital Single Market and will promote the growth of Europe’s creative and cultural industries (CCIs) – a major driver of Europe’s economy.

One of the biggest achievements of this new piece of legislation was to address the
‘Transfer of Value’ problem, a priority issue for all European creators.

Below are some of the Directive’s key areas that will affect creators and those who profit from their work.