During the pandemic lockdowns and quarantines, many of us expressed gratefulness for the 21st century technology that allowed us to watch films and series on our screens, escaping the worrying health crisis around us. However, few paid attention to the consequences of the domination of the streaming and on-demand services by US interests: while the audience gets more content, European authors are being stripped of their right to royalties.

The 31 January 2020 marks the day when the UK left the EU. I called up our UK members Barbara Hayes, Deputy Chief Executive of Authors’ Licensing & Collecting Society (ALCS) and Andy Harrower, CEO of Directors UK to hear from them how Brexit impacted their work and authors’ rights in the UK.

Film/AV sector regrets that the European Parliament missed the opportunity to make the Internet a safer space for everyone.

With the upcoming plenary vote, the European Parliament can still turn the Digital Service Act into an opportunity for the EU to play a global role in making the internet a safer space for everyone.

Experts' top advice on fair remuneration for screenwriters and directors: implementing Article 18 of the EU Copyright Directive

7 June 2021 is the last day to implement the directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market into national law, but few EU Member States will meet the deadline. EU countries have the opportunity to carefully, while still urgently, implement the directive and present a recovery plan to actively support the creative and cultural sector. In return, the sector will be able to nurture European’s wellbeing and recovery.

In recent years, there has been an important increase on the use of AI in the audiovisual and media sectors. This raises key questions on authorship and creativity.

SAA contribution to the consultation of the European Commission on Article 17: Supporting licensing agreements between CMOs and OCSSPs

The European Commission is in the process of putting forward new  rules to deepen the Internal Market for Digital Services. A public consultation has been carried out on a Digital Services Act (DSA). Here you can read the SAA's response. 

A revision of the E-Commerce Directive as the horizontal instrument that regulates digital services is necessary to reflect the rapid transformation and expansion of e-commerce in all its forms and address the current challenges. The E-Commerce Directive is indeed outdated. It does not address today’s market realities: a much wider diversity of services than in 2000 and the massive turnover generated by and around these digital services.

COVID-19 has taken us through emotions of grief, denial, anger and sadness. Hit by the second wave of the pandemic, the virus has demonstrated its force and resulted in the final stage: acceptance. We are slowly learning how to live with and adapt to our new reality. However, the symptoms of a fragile audiovisual sector were there long before the pandemic and the virus is not the only cause.