Blog
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The new Copyright Directive: a thriller with a happy ending - 1st season
On 12 September, in the corridors of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, uncertainty about the outcome of the vote on the new Copyright Directive was palpable, as the media were echoing a possible rejection of the Directive.
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Copyright 0-1: defending rights versus opposing obligations
“Tech Giants Win a Battle Over Copyright Rules in Europe” was the headline of the New York Times following the vote in the European Parliament on 5 July which delays the adoption of the Copyright Directive in the Digital Single Market.
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Flourishing industries profit from struggling authors?
“Creative industries have never been as prosperous in terms of turnover as they are now. The content creators though have never received so little”
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Getting closer to the finishing line?
The other evening, I re-watched ‘Notting Hill’ on Netflix. While millions of people are still enjoying the romantic comedy from the 90s, director, Roger Michell, has never received any royalties for the countless times his film is being viewed online.
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Performers and audiovisual authors plea to the European Parliament
On 29 May, performers and audiovisual authors from across Europe gathered in Strasbourg to explain in their own words why an unwaivable right to remuneration is urgently needed for them as creators, when their works are being watched on on-demand platforms. The meeting was a last plea to the European Parliament before the vote on the new Copyright Directive on 21 June.
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Authors’ right to remuneration is universal
The situation of screenwriters and directors differs across the globe, but the solution to secure that they actually get remuneration for the exploitation of their works is universal: a legal mechanism of a right to remuneration is what is needed.
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Fair working conditions for the next generation of screenwriters and directors
If the left hand of the European Commission would know what the right hand is doing, the discussions about whether audiovisual authors’ right to fair remuneration for the exploitation of their works should be a part of the new Copyright Directive in the Digital Single Market, would not be questioned.
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SAA’s key achievements in 2 minutes
Drafting the eighth activity report of the organisation for our General Assembly meeting on 27 March was harder work than in previous years. For the last two years, due to the legislative agenda of the European Commission in our fields of interest, the level of activity has been intense and in 2017 it reached a peak.
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Where are the female directors and screenwriters?
Margarethe Von Trotta, Isabel Coixet, Julie Bertuccelli, Lynsey Miller, Diane Redmond and Susanna White are just some of the female screenwriters and directors who have signed the declaration calling for fair remuneration of European audiovisual authors. Today – on International Women’s Day (8 March) it is fair to also point out that not only is fair remuneration for authors a necessity but that there is also chronic underrepresentation of female directors and screenwriters in the film industry.
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Online copyright: will the EU be a global front-runner or a bystander?
The negotiations between the European Commission, European Parliament (EP) and the Council of the European Union (EU) on the proposed Directive on ‘Copyright in the Digital Single Market’ will not only determine the rights and remuneration of audiovisual authors in Europe, it will also determine the positioning of the EU on the global stage: will the EU become a front-runner or a bystander?
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Copyright, a new world to me
A month ago, I started as the new Public Affairs and Communications Manager at SAA, after working 8 years with human rights in Brussels. While my background is with public affairs and communications, audiovisual authors’ rights are new for me. It has been exciting first weeks jumping into the subject and getting to know rapidly a few things:
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A screenwriter’s life
This was his moment. The opportunity he’d been waiting for. There he was at Studio Production. It was actually a stroke of luck: a common friend had shown his script to a contact at Studio Productions that had fallen in love with it. Steve got the call to come and sign the contract.