On 24^th January, I attended the 2^nd IP Forum organised by French MEP Marielle Gallo on the online distribution of audiovisual and music works.  Neelie Kroes, vice-President of the European Commission and a panel of 5 experts completed the list of speakers. There was no representative of the authors. When I first saw the programme, I expressed concerns about the absence of any authors’ representative in the panel.

As it turned out the timing of the IP Forum was very pertinent.  The week-end prior to the Forum, the French press relayed concerns from Mrs Reding and Mrs Kroes about the US legislative proposals SOPA and PIPA and the shutdown of Megaupload. So I took the opportunity to ask Mrs Kroes about this issue in addition to my initial topics (participation of authors in any discussion about the future of the content industry and authors’ remuneration for the online exploitation -my address is below and Mrs Kroes’ speech can be found here- you can leave comments on it here).

Concerning Megaupload, Mrs Kroes clearly stated that “Sites that knowingly enable massive copyright infringements and make large sums of money at the expense of creators need to be stopped”. In addition, in answer to my remarks, she said that it is part of her objectives that creators make a decent living from their art, as she declared in Avignon.

After the debate, I was reassured by both Commisisoner Kroes’ team and members of DG INFSO that authors were supported and that any comments attributed to the Commissioner  as to the disproportionate measure of shutting down Megaupload were completely inaccurate. Her only concern was about SOPA and PIPA, hence her statement that “the US legislators have done the right thing by making a pause and seeking a better anti-piracy solution than the SOPA and PIPA bills which were on the table.”

My statement:

“I would like to express my extreme disappointment at the absence of any creators’ representatives from today’s panel.  We are talking about their works, it seems to me only right that they should be involved.

Commissioner Kroes, I have heard this week-end that you expressed concern about the shut-down of MegaUpload. I am reassured to hear today that you agree that these sites which knowingly enable massive copyright infringements and make large sums of money at the expense of creators need to be stopped.

It is extremely important for authors that EU officials do not support such illegal businesses and the simplistic vision of freedom of speech and of the internet against intellectual property rights.

It is your responsibility and mission to design appropriate European anti-piracy solutions which defend European creators and business.

In this field and any other forum discussing the future of the content industry like the forum on the media futures, authors must be present.

Audiovisual authors in particular need concrete solutions to be put in place to help them enforce their right to be remunerated for the online exploitation of their works.  This is an important topic of the July Green Paper on which the SAA made proposals that should not be forgotten when discussing online distribution of audiovisual works.”

CD

“Audiovisual Authors Online – Seizing the Digital Revolution”, has come and gone and now that we’ve tied up (almost all) the loose ends that go with organising such an event, I thought I would share a few of my thoughts on how it all went here.

Before I get onto that, I really do have to thank everyone who accepted our invitations to speak as well as all of those who attended.  I hope you all found it productive.

One of things that we wanted to achieve was a logical flow from the work and role of an author practically speaking to the work and role of an author in the online world.  I really felt that we achieved that.

Above all we wanted to give the authors themselves the opportunity to say in their own words how they feel they fit into their industry and the opening online world.  I thought Paul Powell’s keynote really put this into perspective (here).  It was interesting to hear his reasoning behind going into production too.  All of the authors brought their experience of different countries systems and their experience of collective management to the table and I think, for all the differences, the one common theme was the need for fair and transparent remuneration.

The final session, “Creative Solutions”, showed just how cooperation among different players can help find solutions.  If anything it also showed that there is not necessarily a European one-size-fits-all solution, something that I think reinforces the strength of our proposal for a collectively managed unwaivable remuneration right for online exploitation of works which really should act as a safety net for authors who are not already protected by strong collective agreements.

I was delighted to see how much support our call for action and cooperation received both from the officials and other actors in the sector.  If we are going to create a thriving online market for European works which benefits authors then collective discussions and solutions are essential.  The whole day makes me very positive about the future.

If that wasn’t enough, “Les Neiges du Kilimandjaro” was excellent and a great way to end the day.

CD

PS – photos up on the site now too.  Have a look here.

The SAA launched a year and a half ago (it seems like yesterday!).  Our first major piece of work was to produce the White Paper on Audiovisual Authors’ Rights and Remuneration in Europe, which we published in February 2011 (you can read it here).  This White Paper presented for the first  time a summary of who audiovisual authors are in the different European countries as well as what their collective management organisations do for them.  It also presented SAA’s proposal for guaranteeing that the remuneration of these audiovisual authors is linked to the success of their works in the fast developing online world.

We did some drum banging to raise awareness of our proposal but we didn’t want to sit in the corner on our own – we wanted to hear what other actors in the sector had to say and to see how we could work together to come up with a concrete legislative solution that help audiovisual authors get their works out there while guaranteeing their remuneration.  All these conversation culminated in the publication of our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ – here) document earlier this month.

We obviously did something right with the publication of our White Paper as it was picked up by the European Commission as the source for a couple of questions on authors’ remuneration in the Green Paper on the online distributions of audiovisual works (here).  By the end of the week the EC’s consultation on the online distribution of audiovisual works will be closed.  Obviously the work doesn’t stop there though.  The European Parliament has already chosen the rapporteur for a report on the same subject …

The next date for your diaries is 29^th November when we will be holding a conference in the afternoon entitled “Audiovisual authors online – seizing the digital revolution. Getting works out and remuneration in”.  This will be followed in the evening by a screening of the winner of the LUX prize (more info here) which will be announced later this week.

We wanted to bring together our White Paper, the FAQ and the actors from the sector as well as policy makers to see if we have been able to reach some consensus on our proposal.  We’re also honoured to have the support of four MEPs from four different countries and political groups, which I think sends its own message about the importance across the political spectrum of audiovisual authors being fairly remunerated for their work in the digital era.

The conference will be split into a few different parts and I will be going into a little bit more detail on each of those here in the next couple of weeks.  We’ll also be announcing speakers very soon so stay tuned. In the meantime, however you can already register for the conference here.

CD

The adoption of the Gallo report on the enforcement of intellectual property rights in the internal market by the European Parliament on 22 September is a great victory for European authors.

In spite of a disinformation campaign organised by the usual internet activists, feeding Socialists and Greens with supposed threats on fundamental freedoms, a majority of MEPs acknowledges today the negative impact of online intellectual property infringements on European creative and cultural sectors and calls on the Commission “to urgently present, by the end of 2010, a comprehensive IPR strategy addressing all aspects of IPRs, including their enforcement as well as their promotion, in particular the role of copyright as an enabler and not an obstacle, helping creators earn a living and disseminating their works” (paragraph 3).

Good news sometimes come in blocks: the Pirate Party suffered a major defeat in the Swedish legislative elections last Sunday and could not send any representative to the Swedish Parliament, which leaves its sole elected representative in the European Parliament quite orphan. Are times changing?

Cécile Despringre – SAA Executive director