The European and international organisations of authors and performers’ collective management organisations in the audiovisual, music, literary and visual arts – AEPO-ARTIS, BIEM, CISAC, EVA, IFRRO, GESAC and the SAA – have joined forces to call on the Finnish Parliament to reverse the cut in private copying compensation.

European and international associations of authors’ collective management organisations in the audiovisual, music, text and visual art’s sectors express their concern about the recent cut in the private copying compensation in Finland.

On 1 January Sweden took over the Presidency of the Council of the EU. Despite being one of the largest countries with one of the lowest populations per square kilometer in all of Europe, it is the home to Greta Thunberg, Alfred Nobel, Ingmar Bergman, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, ABBA and many more. I talked to Mattias Åkerlind, CEO of Copyswede, from a cold Stockholm.

"You wouldn't steal a car, you wouldn't steal a handbag, you wouldn't steal a television, you wouldn't steal a movie. Downloading pirated films is stealing, stealing is against the law, PIRACY IT'S A CRIME"

Some of the world’s biggest consumer device manufacturers are aggressively targeting the Visegrad Four countries in an effort to weaken national legislation or application of the existing legal framework on private copying.

From July to December, Germany holds the Presidency of the Council of the EU. It has a population of 83 million and there are 13 Collective Management Organisations for the cultural and creative sectors. VG WORT is one of the biggest, founded in 1958 by authors and publishers together, and a member of the SAA since the start.

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.

Previously, two Commissioners have had a stab at resolving the hoo ha around private copying levies and failed.  This new Commission seemed to have recognised that this was one issue where entrenched, opposing industry positions and overly differing viewpoints between the Member States made progress an unlikely result for a Commission focused on being big on big things and small on small things.

Since the beginning of this new Commission a year ago, copyright has been a contentious issue.

It’s not just the European Commission working on a revision of copyright legislation.

UK private copying exception ‘unlawful’ due to lack of evidence for denying compensation to creators.

SAA's 2nd edition of its White Paper on Audiovisual Authors Rights and Remuneration in Europe underlines the explosion of different forms of exploitation of audiovisual works.