News

Last week, as part of its first Masterclass, SGAE (the Spanish author society) interviewed Francisco Fonseca Morillo, Head of the European Commission representation in Spain.

Mr Fonseca Morillo talked openly about both the protection of intellectual property rights and the promotion of cultural industries in Europe.

Key highlights:

• Mr Fonseca Morillo reiterated that the European cultural industries represent some 4% of European Gross Domestic Product, employing some 6.7 million people.

• Mr Fonseca Morillo presented the Creative Europe Programme, a new instrument that will run from 2014 to 2020. Creative Europe will give artists and professionals from the sector access to an ever-broader public.

• Mr Fonseca Morillo emphasised that the Commission’s priority is to protect creators’ intellectual property rights via an efficient strategy that extends within and across the Europe – a crucial condition for ensuring that they are being fairly remunerated.

• Licenses for Europe, was referred to by Mr Fonseca Morillo as a vital dialogue between all stakeholders in the creative sector. This dialogue, that the creators of this platform are deeply engaged with, is a crucial path towards the innovative solutions that are needed to make the single market work.

• Touching on the ongoing EU-US trade deal talks, Mr Fonseca Morillo mentioned that some economic aspects of the creative sector will be included in the negotiations, but that the European Commission will continue to conserve the uniqueness of its cultural heritage through the cultural exception.

You can read the full article here in Spanish.

A new constellation of stars has seen the light of day in the Nordic area. The three collecting organisations Koda, TONO and Teosto have formed the “Polaris Nordic” alliance which aims at reducing costs and further enhancing the quality of their business.

The future role of Polaris Nordic is to develop and run a joint back-end system for music reporting and distribution of the revenues collected by the organisations. The first two systems, Polaris REP and Polaris DIS are in the pipeline and are expected to be used by all three organisations by the end of 2013. Koda, TONO and Teosto are among the world’s most efficient and lean collecting societies, and the aim is to further reduce their costs by working together and using the same system.

Last Friday, the European Court of Justice overturned a European Commission decision from 2008 that alleged author societies had colluded to secure an unfair advantage in the market place. Described by MLex as a ‘crucial victory’, the decision has received coverage across the web.

Here is our pick from the numerous articles published since Friday:

1 Collecting societies celebrate as EU Court annuls ‘collusion’ findings. (Mlex – Paid-for content)

2 CISAC appeal upheld by general court of the EU in ‘competition restriction’ case (Music Week)

3 Court annuls Commission’s CISAC decision (New Europe)

4 Collecting societies cleared of cartel accusations (Europolitics)

5 EU Court tells Commission it was wrong over collecting societies (Managing IP – Paid for Content)

6 EU General Court Clears Copyright Collecting Societies Of Antitrust Charges   (IP Watch – Paid-for content)
7 Commission’s decision finding anti-competitive conduct on the part of copyright collecting societies, partially annulled (EuroAlert)

8 EU Court Nixes Copyright Royalty Antitrust Decision (Law 360 – Paid-for content)

9 CISAC wins appeal in Europe  (The CMU website)

10 EU court partially overturns EC ruling on collecting societies  (Digital TV Europe)

You can read CISAC’s press release here.

You can read the Court’s statement announcing the decision here.