Blog
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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.
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Will 2018 be a Happy New Year for Audiovisual Authors?
The beginning of 2018 will most likely be the end of long and intense negotiations leading up to a final adoption of the EU Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market. The Directive proposal was presented by the European Commission in September 2016, and we have now reached the final stages of discussions.
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Broadcasting Regulation: When is retransmission retransmission?
The digital evolution of broadcasting, with the development of on-demand services, has led the European institutions to propose a reform of the 1993 CabSat Directive in the form of a new Regulation.
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Canal+ and EU Copyright – collective action necessary
Canal+, one of the most prominent investors in French cinema, has stopped paying the authors’ Collective Management Organisations the royalties due for films and TV series it broadcasts.
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Freedom of contract: fact and fiction
Freedom of contract is seen as a corner stone of much of modern business and is often a key argument against regulation. But sometimes contractual freedom is a fiction and to defend it is to perpetuate injustice.
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Is the fear of double pay making MEPs scared of ‘fair’ remuneration?
Double payment is the most consistent fear presented in opposition to the unwaivable remuneration right that would ensure screenwriters and directors are paid when their works are watched online.
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The complexity of "fair"
One of the overriding themes of the Copyright Directive proposal was to re-balance negotiations. The key word was “fair”. The Commission used this justification for its press publishers’ right, the value gap proposal and the transparency triangle.
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