[Sheflug] [Fwd: [ORG-discuss] European Commissioner McCreevy on copyright protection]

[Tim Dobson <personalwebsite@xxxxxxxx>]

This is starting to look worrying :( :

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [ORG-discuss] European Commissioner McCreevy on copyright 
protection
Date: Wed, 21 May 2008 07:18:23 -0700 (PDT)
From: Glyn Wintle <glynwintle@xxxxxxxxx>
To: Open Rights Group open discussion list 
<org-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/08/253&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

...
Let me start by looking at copyright protection for
performers. European performers do not enjoy
sufficient term protection. 95% of them do not earn
enough from their profession and have to take up
parallel jobs. I want all performers, whether featured
artists or session musicians, to be able to earn more
from their work. This allows them to spend more time
doing what they do best – namely performing.

Authors enjoy copyright protection that lasts for 70
years after their death. Performers on the other hand
enjoy protection for 50 years from the time of their
performance. This means that an increasing number of
them are seeing their performances fall into the
public domain during their lifetimes. Not only do they
no longer have a say in how their performances are
used, but also their royalty payments and their
airplay remuneration dry up.

And it usually happens at a time in their lives when
they are getting older and not working as much. The
music business is not the type that comes with a
pension scheme. The principal beneficiaries of our
proposal are the thousands of anonymous session
musicians who contributed to sound recordings at that
time.

That is why I propose is to extend protection for
performers and sound recordings from the current 50 to
95 years. I aim to present a proposal for an amendment
to the Directive on term protection by this summer.

By doing this we will go some way towards solving a
number of problems. Firstly, performers will be able
to control how their performances are used. This will
allow them to object to their work being abused or
used in a way they do not agree with. Secondly, they
will continue to receive royalties and airplay
remuneration for their entire lifetime, and as for
authors, their heirs will benefit a little after their
death.

Extending the term is not enough in itself. I also
propose that each record company set up a special fund
specifically devoted to session musicians. The company
will have to pay a percentage of its increased
revenues in the extended period into this fund. This
will mean that the thousands of session musicians will
increase their earnings.

Another area of work at present in the Intellectual
Property field is private copying levies. You will be
aware I re-launched work some months back on this
issue. Some have suggested that I want to trade off
term extension with private copying levies. I want to
clearly dispel this rumour. Both initiatives have
their own independent merit.

I perceive a clear need for the societies that
administer the levies, and the industry that have to
pay them, to get together and find a way out of their
current disagreements. The latest round of
consultation took place between February and April of
this year. This consultation yielded some 120 replies,
primarily from collecting societies that administer
levies and from the industry that has to pay them.
This response rate shows that the issue is still very
much alive.

I have decided to organise a public hearing on 27 May
to discuss the results of this public consultation. I
would like to see this public hearing leading to the
setting up of a structured dialogue between the
stakeholders in the search for common ground in
addressing this complex issue.

My ultimate wish would be that everyone that is
concerned with levies could be able to agree on some
basic principles to apply to the calculation of the
different levies.

A third area of work in the IP field is Community
trade mark fees. The Commission is currently preparing
a proposal for a further substantial reduction of
these fees. The Community Trademark Office in Alicante
is an agency financing itself, independently from the
Community budget. The Office is financially very well
off and is generating considerable cash every year.
This is partly due to its attractiveness, as companies
continue to submit more and more trade mark and design
applications. However, the Agency has to balance its
revenues and expenditure. I intend to present this
proposal in the next months. We have also started
working on the evaluation of the trademark systems in
the EU with a view to identify potential needs for
improvement and future developments.

Work continues on the patent litigation system and on
the Community patent. Since the Commission adopted the
Communication "Enhancing a patent system in Europe" in
April 2007, we have been actively working towards a
consensus on the key elements among Member States in
the Council under the German, Portuguese and now the
Slovenian Presidency. I hope the encouraging progress
made over the past year continues and it is something
we can come back to a little further down the line.

Work is also continuing on the Green Paper on
Copyright in the Knowledge Economy. The purpose of
this Green Paper is to encourage debate on how
copyright legislation can continue to serve the
objective of the dissemination of knowledge for
research, science and education – particularly in the
online environment. The Green Paper aims to set out a
number of issues connected with the role of copyright
in the "knowledge economy", relying as it does not on
natural resources such as land or minerals, but on
intellectual resources such as know-how and expertise.
It could be adopted just before or just after the
summer break and it is intended to launch a public
consultation.

A last point on intellectual property rights is the
fight against counterfeiting and piracy. This is a key
priority for the Commission. Last week's high-level
conference marked the starting point for our efforts
in order to find practical solutions to combat
counterfeiting and piracy. We need all stakeholders to
engage in working on practical and concrete ways to
fight off fakes rather than camping on positions of
principle. More regulation is certainly not the
answer. I am grateful to the Parliament's support on
this issue and for your active participation at the
conference. ...




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