SAA - Society of Audiovisual Authors

For years, private copying levies have been under attack by manufacturers and importers of media and devices which bear the levies (products mainly manufactured outside the EU). Even though such levies only represent 0.06% of their income1 , manufacturers and importers no longer accept to participate in financially compensating authors, the works of are copied on or via their products. They try to escape responsibility by multiplying court cases and arguments trying to demonstrate that the system is outdated. They have so far failed to succeed in court at the highest level (the CJEU has just ruled in the 4th case in 3 years and 2 preliminary rulings are pending), so have intensified their political campaign against private copying levies to pressure national governments, parliaments and consumers, as well as European institutions.

The SAA, alongside other rightholders’ organisations, has jumped into the debate to demonstrate that the private copying levy system is fair, legitimate, efficient and costeffective, ensuring remuneration for creators and freedom to copy for consumers. However, to ensure this social pact between creators and consumers lasts in the digital era and the internal market, the system urgently needs to be adapted in a number of Member States. It also needs a European framework guaranteeing that rightholders, consumers and manufacturers and importers benefit from harmonised conditions throughout the EU.

What is at stake?

The current debates revolve around the existence, adaptation and viability of the private copying levy system. The SAA contribution aims at highlighting and ensuring that the following principles are recognised and enforced:

• Private copying is justly accompanied by compensation for the rightholders.
• Having levies on devices and media making private copies is an efficient and costeffective way to organise the compensation.
• An important element of the system’s cost-effectiveness is to collect the levies at the earliest stages of the sales chain, i.e. from the manufacturer or the importer.
• The amount of private copying compensation should be linked to the value of the creative works being copied, not to the price of the devices which can depend on commercial strategies2 .
• The private copying system should be brought into the digital age taking into account that consumers make private copies more than ever before on ever more connected devices and services.
• There is a need for common principles for defining applicable levy rates and devices/services that should be subject to levies.