26 April 2021

Seun Lari-Williams wins ALAI European Authors’ Right Award 2021

This year’s edition of the ALAI European Authors’ Right Award, supported by GESAC, was awarded to Seun Lari-Williams for his essay “Bridging the Value Gap Between Content Creators and Digital Media Platforms: A Case Study of YouTube”.

Mr Williams was a practising lawyer in his native Nigeria before receiving a scholarship to study at the Munich Intellectual Property Centre, where he completed his masters last year with a thesis on the same subject as his award submission.

His essay explored the value gap and imbalance of power between YouTube and the creators who use the platform. It covers YouTube’s market dominance, the platform’s role in the market streaming value chain and the different course of action creators can take to rebalance the scales.

We interviewed Mr Williams about his essay, which you can listen to below. We discuss the essay’s themes, including his conclusion that the best course of action for creators is collective action, specifically through joining authors’ societies and pursuing legislative change. Mr Williams also talks about his background as a lawyer in Nigeria, how the country’s creative scene has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and some of the differences between intellectual property in Africa and Europe.

Professor Frank Gotzen, President of ALAI and head of the award’s jury, said: “The jury appreciated the clarity with which this candidate identified the crux of the problem concerning the transfer of value/value gap. This gap results from the gross disproportionality between the contractual power wielded by the digital streaming platforms and their content creators. Bridging the gap will be effective when collective management is combined with legislative intervention.”

Véronique Desbrosses, General Manager of GESAC, said: “The essay of Seun Lari-Williams is touching upon a key issue for creators. The Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market has created a new paradigm, addressing the transfer of value/value gap and marking the end of the unshared reign of dominant tech platforms, who can no longer impose their unfair practices and must now cooperate and remunerate authors fairly.”

The deadline for submissions for the next edition of the award is
November 19. Read more about the prize and application details here.

GESAC Authors’ Societies · Interview with Seun Lari-Williams – ALAI European Authors’ Right Award winner

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.