“We need to talk, not only about our films, but about how we are remunerated for what we create”

Dear Ministers,

The proposal for a Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market has now moved on to ‘trilogue’ negotiations between the Parliament, the Council (Member States) and the European Commission. This last stage of the negotiation process leading to its final adoption resonates particularly with an issue being dealt with in the Directive: transparency.

“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.

The Society of Audiovisual Authors welcomes the agreement between the European Parliament, the Council and the European Commission on the reform of EU rules governing audiovisual media services. It thanks policy makers for their willingness to lay down new rules to adapt the European framework to the emergence of digital platforms.

A wide cross-section of the European creative community hopes and expects the European institutions to agree on a meaningful solution to the very real and growing problem associated with Direct Injection (DI). We have been disappointed by the Council’s decision so far not to address the problem.

The revision of the Audiovisual Media Services (AVMS) Directive is currently in interinstitutional negotiations between the European Commission (EC), Parliament and Council.

126 prominent screenwriters and directors across Europe, and their representative organisations, have come together to call on the legislators of the European Union to seize the momentum of the adoption of the Copyright Directive in the Digital Single Market to once and for all support Europe’s creators in the online environment.

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.

On 4th August, the private copying levy system will be re-introduced in Spain following years of court cases and insufficient compensation from the state budget.

Today, the European Parliament Industry and Culture committees voted in favour of an unwaivable right to fair remuneration for authors and performers for the making available of their works. Supported by the European audiovisual authors’ community, such a remuneration right would ensure that screenwriters and directors receive royalties when their works are exploited on on-demand services, wherever in Europe, thanks to its collective mechanism.

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.