SAA welcomes EC copyright work plan – creators’ petition reaches 16,000 signatures

The Society of Audiovisual Authors (SAA) welcomes the European Commission’s announcement today following its orientation debate on future copyright policy. Adopting a pragmatic approach and conducting a proper stakeholder dialogue is the best way of constructively resolving many of the issues. We are also reassured to hear that any future modifications of current copyright legislation will not be made until the necessary assessments and evaluations have been carried out.

We would also like to thank the 16,000 signatories of the petition we launched last week, who showed how much authors’ rights mean to creators from across Europe and many citizens.  The results went far beyond our initial expectations and underlines the strong feelings about this issue.  We are sure this made an impact.

Link: EC Memo

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Cécile Despringre, SAA Executive Director said “SAA is very pleased to see that the Commission has adopted a pragmatic approach and shunned an immediate re-opening of the 2001 copyright directive.  Our petition gathered 16,000 signatures by the time the Commission finished their orientation debate – a fantastic result and one we’re sure had an impact.  We are now looking forward to participating in the stakeholder dialogue and alongside other industry partners ensuring that creators’  interests are really taken into account.”