CEATL on European Commission's Copyright Action Plan

Deniard

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• Publié par: ActuaLitte.com
• Publié le: 13 janvier 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 29
• Langue: English

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CEATL’s reaction to the Commission’s action plan “towards a modern, more European copyright framework” Brussels, 11 January 2016 As an association representing authors, CEATL has read with attention the communication and action plan for a reform of EU copyright rulespublished by the Commission on December 9th 2015. * CEATL welcomes the emphasis put on the necessity to reassess the role and responsibility ofinternet intermediaries and platforms, as well as to fightcommercial-scale copyright infringements more effectively. * CEATL is delighted to see continued interest for mechanisms aimed at ensuring fair remuneration for authors(“the regulation of certain contractual practices, unwaivable remuneration rights, collective bargaining and collective management of rights”). Safeguarding fair contractual conditions and fair and transparent remuneration for creators is essential for European culture and diversity to flourish and for the market to be fed with quality content. CEATL has been happy to contribute to the survey launched by the Commission to examine the situation in the print sector and looks forward to participating in the next stages of the work. * However, CEATL also wishes to point out that the proposed modifications to the exceptions regime give raise to some misgivings.Of particular concern are the exceptions regarding education (illustration for teaching) and the libraries (digitization for preservation/remote consultation). CEATL considers it a point of utmost importance that further cross-border use of educational materials is facilitated by way of stimulating demand-driven cross-border additions to existing systems of collective licensing and not by a global levelling of the details of national exceptions. This would surely disturb the finely-tuned collective licensing agreements that have been established in different ways in almost all member states. CEATL urges the Commission to consider whether the actual need for further cross-border use of online educational materials would not be best served by soft law initiatives to improve how national and regional rights managements organisations work together rather than by enforcing uniform standards from above. Furthermore, CEATL recognizes the importance of libraries and archives in both preserving cultural heritage and fostering a reading culture, but warns against an inconsiderate broadening of exceptions in that field. Exceptions for libraries need to be strictly defined if the Commission wants to leave room for the further development of the e-book market. For instance, including “private study” as a circumstance allowing for remote consultation under a new

exception would quite frankly pull the rug from under incipient e-book markets in many European countries. Finally, as far as out-of-commerce works are concerned, the reference framework is and, we believe, must remain the Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2012, which provides for the digitisation and making available of such works to be carried out on the basis of collective licensing. As a rule, creating and broadening exceptions should always be carefully considered and, when possible, avoided in favour of other solutions (contractual agreements, collective licensing), as exceptions always constitute an expropriation of the authors’ moral and economical rights on their works. Therefore, CEATL considers it essential that the three-step test derived from the Berne Convention(exceptions should be confined to special cases, not conflict with a normal exploitation of the works and not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the author)is not only acknowledged as an abstract principle, but actually employed as part of the basic framework of the Commission's upcoming deliberations on exceptions. CEATL is the European Council of Literary Translators’ Associations. Officially founded in 1993 as an international non-profit organisation, it now has 35 member associations from 29 countries across Europe, and represents more than 10 000 individual literary translators. Contacts: Cécile Deniard ([e-mail]) Morten Visby ([e-mail])