Blog
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Private copying – dark art or just fair remuneration
At a rather one-sided event in Brussels last week I heard private copying referred to as a “dark art” that almost nobody really understands. A ridiculously biased comment.
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Travelling and Terraferma – The film-makers invite Emanuele Crialese
Tuesday 13th March saw SAA partner with the SACD and the French association of authors, directors and producers, L’ARP, for the second edition of “Les cinéastes invitent ...
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We Need to Talk About the Audiovisual Sector
Jean-Marie Cavada, MEP (France, EPP) rapporteur for the non-legislative report of the European Parliament on the online distribution of audiovisual works, organised a workshop on 27 February to discuss the issues with a panel of stakeholders representing authors, performers, producers and broadcasters[1].
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From the horse’s mouth – Screenwriters and Directors telling their own story
On 22nd February we met Vice President Kroes of the European Commission who is in charge of everything digital there. We had a very distinguished group of screenwriters and directors with us – Robert Alberdignk Thijm, Fred Breinersdorfer, Bertrand Tavernier and Susanna White.
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European Court of Justice Gives Comfort to Audiovisual Authors’ Rights
In a case opposing the scriptwriter/director of a documentary film, Mr Luksan, and the producer of the film, Mr van der Let, the European Court of Justice has given comfort to European scriptwriters and directors, clarifying their exploitation rights and their right to fair compensation for private copying in the films they create. The Judgement issued on 9th February 2012 was on a reference for a preliminary ruling from an Austrian court and had to deal with the Austrian copyright law dating back to 1936.
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Creators must speak out before copyright and authors' rights are turned completely upside down
Last Friday I attended the very interesting Creators’ Conference (well done on organising that, ECSA). There were lots of very important points raised and I’m looking forward to ECSA posting those on the event’s website soon (Emmanuel Legrand’s blog already has a few). In the meantime I thought I’d pick up on a few very relevant comments.
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Diversity, of the Cultural Variety
Yesterday I attended “Culture, An Added Value For Europe”, an event (excellently) organized by the European Coalitions for Cultural Diversity in collaboration with the European Platform on the Potential of Cultural and Creative Industries and moderated by Carole Tongue, former MEP.
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Commissioner Kroes – “Sites that make large sums of money at the expense of creators need to be stopped”
On 24th January, I attended the 2nd IP Forum organised by French MEP Marielle Gallo on the online distribution of audiovisual and music works. Neelie Kroes, vice-President of the European Commission and a panel of 5 experts completed the list of speakers.
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Private Copying - Welcome Mr Vitorino
Following up on a joint communiqué we recently signed with a number of other rightsholders (see here), I thought I’d personally welcome Antonio Vitorino as the new mediator for private copying remuneration.
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Creative Solutions
“Audiovisual Authors Online – Seizing the Digital Revolution”, has come and gone and now that we’ve tied up (almost all) the loose ends that go with organising such an event, I thought I would share a few of my thoughts on how it all went here.
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Increasing the availability of European works online
The second part of “Audiovisual Authors Online – Seizing the Digital Revolution”, the conference that SAA is organising this week, is all about how we can resolve one of the eternal frustrations of any author – making sure that his or her works are out there and accessible to the public (legally of course).
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SAA Conference - authors in the audiovisual value chain (part 2)
So, as Commissioner Kroes said, authors should be at the heart of copyright. She used the word ‘should’. Does that mean that they are not?Looking at this slightly differently, why not look at the role of authors within the value chain of their industry? There will be an introductory session as part of Audiovisual Authors Online – Seizing the Digital Revolution, the conference we are organising next week, which will try to nail down exactly that.
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