Next week I am going to participate in a breakfast panel entitled “Striking the balance between IP protection and Internet freedom in Europe”. The line-up includes two rightsholder representatives (myself and Sylvie Forbin from Vivendi), a Pirate Party MEP (Mr Engström) and three organisations who promote the freedom of the internet (Marco Pancini from Google, Philippe Aigrain from the Quadrature du Net and Markus Kummer from the Internet Society). I accepted to join this debate because I fundamentall
Audiovisual Triangles and Musical Circles
Before the summer the European Commission (finally) published its long awaited proposal for a Directive on Collective Rights Management (here).
Robert Alberdingk Thijm, Fred Breinersdorfer, Stijn Coninx, Jan Hrebejk, Agnès Jaoui, Radu Mihaileanu, Volker Schlöndorff, Hugh Stoddart, Bertrand Tavernier, Jaco Van Dormael, Susanna White - Patrons of the Society of Audiovisual Authors - respond to Finish and Spanish ministers' comments in the European Voice.
I traditionally spend a few days in Cannes for the International Film Festival in May to (of course) see films and discover the brilliant selection concocted by Thierry Fremaux, the most trusted cinema lover in the world, but above all to participate in events and meet people at this big international fair.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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].
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.
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 1
