Blog
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The adverse effect of contractual freedom
Part of the problem with Piracy is that many fans don’t feel that they are giving anything to the creator, just to a big faceless company. While this is obviously a simplistic view (most European producers are not that big and I doubt such fans check the size of the company before deciding whether to download legally or not) the reality in the audiovisual sector is that it is doubtful much (if any) of the money handed over will reach the authors.
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Happy World Intellectual Property Day!
There is a “day” for almost everything it seems. The reason why such “days” exist is generally to raise awareness of a particular issue. Such days are a sort of celebration of a cause which is often defended all year round but needs a focal point for the media.So, intellectual property gets its day today as authors’ rights and copyright had there day on 23rd April.
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Stop Buyouts
For the first time, on a European level, the three main organisations representing screenwriters, directors and their collective management organisations came together to call for an end to buyout contracts. This is big news.
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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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