EBU/UE, accesso flessibile agli archivi audiovisivi

Bel comunicato di oggi dall'EBU sull'incontro avvenuto ieri tra i rappresentanti dell'organizzazione dei broadcaster pubblici europei e Michel Barnier, commissario europeo per i Mercati interni e i servizi, a proposito della questione copyright e delle iniziative che l'Unione sta prendendo al proposito nell'ambito della sua Digital Agenda. Come ogni bravo consumatore di streaming, podcast e altro materiale messo a disposizione dai siti delle emittenti pubbliche come Radio RAI, la questione dei diritti d'autore sui contenuti depositati negli archivi elettronici è fondamentale. E le regole attuali servono solo a precludere una accessibilità - anche regolamentata e a pagamento - che sia davvero ampia e alla portata di tutti. Occorrono chiaramente regole nuove e anche l'EBU sembra favorire i modelli di licensing collettivo che oggi vengono esplorati con maggior interesse. C'è in gioco la nostra capacità, come cittadini digitali, di usufruire di un patrimonio culturale e informativo che è soprattutto "nostro", ancor prima dei "titolari dei diritti". Fermo restando che anche questi ultimi godono di ogni diritto alla equa retribuzione.

Modernization of copyright licensing to benefit EU consumers and creators

The EBU meets Commissioner Barnier to discuss copyright modernization in the digital era

Brussels, 25 June 2010 - On 24 June 2010 the European Broadcasting Union (EBU)*, the world’s leading broadcasting association, met with European Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services Michel Barnier, to discuss the EBU's proposals on copyright modernization in the context of the upcoming EU copyright initiatives.

The EBU welcomed the Commissioner's initiatives on copyright in the Digital Agenda. Public service broadcasters are investing substantially in quality content which will help to ensure a more inclusive and sustainable digital information society for the benefit of all citizens.

However, today broadcasters need a simplification of rights clearance mechanisms to encourage innovation and ensure that audiences can legally access media content on a range of new digital platforms, therefore facilitating the development of a successful Digital Agenda.

"Our proposals seek a balanced approach that provides 'easy access' for consumers, facilitating the distribution of content across the internal market, while duly protecting rights holders, including artists," declared Jean-Paul Philippot, President of the European Broadcasting Union.

A key element of the EBU's proposals is the extended collective rights management** mechanism for clearing rights for audio and audiovisual media services and its wider application across the EU for traditional broadcasting as well as on-demand media services.

The EBU welcomed the upcoming Commission initiative on collective management which is of the utmost importance to the EBU and its Members. The EBU urged the Commissioner to have provisions on extended collective licensing introduced in the future framework directive on collective management.

"Collective management is indispensable because broadcasters can't go individually to rights holders for a lot of mass use," said Ingrid Deltenre, Director General of the European Broadcasting Union . She went on to say, " For our Nordic Members, the extended collective licensing system, which has been in place for the past 50 years, has significantly simplified the process of clearing rights for archive content, including orphan works . However, our Members still have a total of approximately 28 million hours of unused radio and TV content, representing an enormous part of Europe's cultural heritage."

The EBU pointed out that this situation creates unnecessary administrative costs, and is not in

the interests of copyright users, consumers or creators. This is why, in addition to proposals on books in a directive on orphan works, solutions must also be found for audiovisual archives.

As part of a coherent set of proposed measures, the EBU highlighted another of its key points: the country of origin principle***. This would facilitate EU-wide licensing avoiding multi-territorial application of 27 national copyright rules, on the basis of the principle of technological neutrality, where a policy should not favour a particular technology.

"The more you facilitate the system, the more likely it is that you will have content available on

all platforms nationally and across borders," concluded Ms Deltenre.

The EBU stressed that its proposals respect the contractual freedom of producers of premium content, e.g. films. They must remain free to negotiate their exclusive rights individually with broadcasters and to contractually restrict their licenses to certain territories.

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Note to Editors:

* The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) serves 86 national media organizations from 56 countries in and around Europe. It represents its Members and promotes the values and distinctiveness of public service media in Europe and around the world. The Eurovision and Euroradio networks deliver news, sports, events and music to EBU Members and other media organizations. Services to Members range from legal advice, technical standardization and development to co-production and exchange of quality European content.

For more information about the EBU: http://www.ebu.ch

The copyright proposals, detailed in a study, can be found at: http://www.ebu.ch/copyright

** Extended collective licensing: rights holders of a particular category of works are represented by a collective organization. Broadcasters and other users of works can clear all the rights of that category with the organization, even for works of rights holders who are not a member of the organization. All non-represented rights holders retain the right to opt out of the collective agreement and prohibit the use of their works.

*** Country of origin" rule (the law applicable to a service provider is that of the Member State in which the business providing the service is based), which applies to satellite broadcasting, should be extended to cover all audiovisual media service communications, on all platforms, including the Internet.