News

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.

EY (formerly Ernst & Young) published its study on Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs) worldwide today. The study was presented jointly in Paris by EY, the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC), and UNESCO.

The study shows that CCI worldwide in 2013 accounted for US$2,250 billion in revenues and 29.5 million jobs. CCI also drive the digital economy, with creative content contributing US$200 billion to global digital sales

Backed by these numbers, CISAC calls for:

• a better promotion of authors’ rights, securing fair remuneration for creators;
• improving online monetisation by rebalancing the current transfer of value in the digital economy;
• nurturing talent to to ensure the creative community remains an engine of innovation for more sustainable development.
• Download the study and read the executive summary, the key figures and the press release at www.worldcreative.org.

Last week, EY (the former Ernst & Young) came out with an update of its analysis of the creative and cultural industries (CCIs) in France. Supported by the 19 CCI organisations of the France Créative Alliance and looking into 10 separate sectors, EY updated its previous study released in 2013 with new numbers, revealing the current state of play in France.

The study shows that French CCIs have experienced a consistent growth (1.2% between 2010 and 2013), exceeding that of the rest of the French economy (0.9% for the same time period. CCI count some 1.3 million jobs; double the car industry’s employment numbers, and 8 times that of the chemical industry.

On 18 November, GESAC organised, together with its members, and kindly hosted by MEPs Bogdan Wenta, Hannu Takkula and José Blanco López the latest Meet the Authors event. It provided a fruitful debate on two issues that matter most to creators and the creative sector: transfer of value and common needs of creators and consumers. The meeting was attended by more than 100 people: creators, representatives of GESAC member societies, MEPs, Political advisors, MEP assistants, representatives from Member States and European Commission officials. Pictures of the event are available at http://www.authorsocieties.eu/mta. Very short interviews were organised for authors and MEPs. These are available at https://vimeo.com/authorsocieties/videos.

The feedback from MEPs is positive: they welcomed this initiative and found the debates very useful. They particularly appreciated the opportunity to meet and exchange with creators.

We’ve made a short recap of the debates held: