News

Press Release –

Authors’ and performers’ organisations congratulate Legal Affairs committee on forward-looking report that looks at how to sustainably modernise the implementation of the private copying levy system to cater for permanently evolving consumption patterns of copyrighted works and to ensure its efficient functioning within the single market.

The organisations, that represent the interests of screenwriters, directors, composers, journalists, visual art authors, writers, actors and musicians, welcome the balanced report at a time when the European Commission is consulting on copyright.

Mrs Castex’s report includes a number of detailed clarifications on different elements of the virtuous system that provides legal certainty for booming device manufacturers and importers, freedom to copy for consumers and fair compensation for creators.  The report correctly identifies where the implementation of the current system needs to evolve to match modern consumers’ expectations (through updated lists of leviable devices) and the demands of the single market (improved levy setting and cross border declaration systems).

Presented as the European Parliament’s response to private copying “mediator”, Antonio Vitorino’s report from last year, the committee has countered a number of Vitorino’s suggestions. Phasing out the system is completely unrealistic as consumers will still seek a freedom to copy that would be untenable in the absence of the exception.  Shifting the levy payments to retailers has also been demonstrated as excessively burdensome.

The report also casts a shadow over the UK’s attempts to introduce the private copying exception without any fair compensation for rightholders and the Spanish government’s inexplicable decision to give a 115m€ discount to device manufacturers and importers while further challenging an already stretched public purse and failing to guarantee a drop in prices to consumers.

We would like to place on record our thanks to all the MEPs and particularly Mrs Castex for their tenacity in bringing this report to such a successful conclusion.

Press contact: Véronique Desbrosses secretariatgeneral@gesac.org Tel. +32 (2) 511 44 54

Press Release 

Today, the European Parliament adopted with an overwhelming majority (640 votes to 18, with 22 abstentions) the Directive on Collective Management of Copyright. This follows the agreement of the Trialogue in late 2013 and several years of intensive discussion on the issue and in particular on digital cross-border licensing of copyright for musical works.

GESAC, on behalf of the 33 societies it represents across Europe, welcomes this adoption of the Directive by the European Parliament. The Directive highlights the key role of collective management organisations (CMOs) in negotiating deals with licensees and securing fair remuneration to creators. It aims at setting European wide standards of transparency and governance, which are essential to ensure that relationships with rightholders and users are based on confidence.

GESAC has welcomed the CRM Directive from the beginning of its legislative journey. The completed text confirms the crucial role that author and rightsholder members play in overseeing the operations of their societies. It also sets a legal framework that accompanies the development of the online market for the cross-border use of music and the solutions already provided by CMOs to organise rights clearance in a manner that is efficient for users and respectful of rights holders’ interests.

CMOs are producing innovative solutions to assist the development of the online market both in the form of simplified licensing offers and in international collaborations driving greater efficiency in data management and better access to content. Common technical solutions and licensing hubs are examples of CMO leadership in this area. These solutions are crucial to swifter market development, and they offer up access to greater numbers of repertoires encouraging business users to access to the full range of creative content produced throughout the European Union.

GESAC regrets however that the opportunities to guarantee cultural diversity were not taken as necessary, since it is uncertain whether all repertoires will be offered by digital services on a pan-European basis.

GESAC General Manager Véronique Desbrosses commented, “This process has sparked the political interest for collective management and how CMOs contribute to economic growth and continuous cultural creation in the EU. Authors’ societies lead the way to meet the needs of the online market and are essential to ensure that authors and rights holders are adequately paid”.

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In the EPP’ press release, Rapporteur Marielle Gallo (FR) commented: “What the EU digital single market really needs is to put aside ideology and find solutions to clearly-defined concerns over copyright. This is what we did and this is the reason why we clinched a deal that everybody, from the UK Conservatives to the Pirate Party, can support. Copyright is not a burden but an asset for the European economy. And with today’s vote, we have clearly shown that it is definitely compatible with the digital era and can adapt to it”,

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Background information on GESAC: The European Grouping of Societies of Authors and Composers represents 33 of the main copyright management societies in the European Union, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland, administering the rights and remuneration of almost 800 000 authors, composers and writers in a variety of sectors (music, audio-visual, literary and visual and graphic arts) and music publishers.

José Jorge Letria, journalist and President of the Portuguese Society of Authors, recently wrote on the Portuguese newspaper Público, launching the idea of a European Authors Party. Check below why it “has all the conditions to become an intervention and fighting tool for many hundreds of thousands of authors from several countries and different areas of creation which can complement the work of collective management societies.”

In May 2014, the citizens of the 28 European Union countries are going to elect the members of the European Parliament. There is a high expectation about the level of participation because the unfamiliarity and indifference gap between national voters and the institution whose members they are electing has never been truly bridged, probably because said voters have never considered how much the decisions of the Brussels-Strasbourg axis affects the lives of each country’s community and, for that matter, each of our lives.

During a recent meeting with societies of authors from all over Europe, the European Commission officer in charge of Private Copy matters, Kerstin Jorna, stated: “The next European elections will need strong candidates if a new cycle is to begin and, to a large extent, if the European Union’s future itself is to be ensured. But this has to be based on clear ideas.”