21 May 2012

Online Art made Easy

In the online world, compelling and high-quality visuals are essential for standing out and getting noticed. Featuring a dazzling Kandinsky or a chilling Munch portrait can make all the difference to a website, for example, ensuring a memorable and high-quality project that captures peoples’ imagination time and time again.

Increasingly, commercial enterprises like advertising agencies are catching on to the value of using fine art in their online projects and campaigns – taking a leaf out of the books of museums, libraries and schools that have been using masterpieces in their web projects to great success for some time.

As varied as the users of online art may be, they have one important need: peace of mind that they’re using works of art legally and in an equitable way – they don’t want to see the creators of the works they enjoy short-changed by their actions.

After all, creators (and their estates) rely on – and are legally and morally entitled to – fair payment for the works they produce. In fact, works of art are protected by law for the entire life of their creators, plus 70 years following their death.

OnLine Art, a one-stop-shop offering worldwide licenses to some 40 000 users of fine art, marries the interests of creators and users. With the expertise to provide rights packages tailored to each and every online project, they take the worry out of what could be a big logistical headache for users; and make sure creators receive payment for the works they produce.

‘Online art’ represents painters, artistic photographers and sculptors to name a few – so they’re bound to have a few of your favourite artists on their books! The organisation was founded in spring 2002 by eight visual arts author societies: seven located in Europe and one in the United States. Today, the organisation counts 16 members and its network continues to grow!

Initiatives like ‘Online Art’ have an important role to play in ensuring harmony between progress and innovation and the promotion of cultural diversity.

Marie-Anne Ferry-Fall, Director General of ADAGP – the Society of Authors of Graphic and Plastic arts says “Online Art was founded to enable the provision of license for digital uses in transparent and equal conditions and show, through its efficiency, that the respect of authors’ rights is not incompatible with the needs of information society. Via the licenses offered by Online Art, sites listing works of art (Artprice, Artnet, Artvalue …) so valuable to the art market can deliver hundreds of thousands of images of works.

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.