Bogdan Wenta MEP’s draft report discussed in the European Parliament Culture committee.

If you could go back, knowing what you know now, what would you change about the 2001 Copyright Directive?  This seems to be the premise for Julia Reda’s evaluation draft report on the much maligned directive.  But is this the right way to do it?

A very happy new year from the SAA team to all our readers! So, what lies ahead in 2015 in terms of policy and court cases of interest to Europe’s screenwriters and directors?

Authors’ organisations of the text (EWC), visual arts (EVA) and music (ECSA) sectors held conferences to address new MEPs last week.

The popular winner in the press after the European Parliament elections is ‘others’, a mix of national eurosceptic, extreme right and anti-establishment parties that together represent the 3rd highest grouping (estimates put EPP at 213 seats, S&D at 189 seats and other at 105 seats).

The legal affairs committee exchanged views on the draft report by Mrs Castex MEP on the issue of private copying levies on 14 October 2013.

On 18th September 2013 the European Parliament’s legal affairs committee held a hearing on private copying levies.  The hearing saw authors, performers, film producers, consumers and manufacturers present their visions of the system for MEPs to take into account as they prepare a report on the issue.

Last week the European Parliament made a very strong statement.

Janine Lorente, the chair of the SAA board of directors presented SAA’s position on the collective rights management directive proposal on 18 March.

Janine Lorente, the chair of SAA’s board of directors, spoke at the European Parliament’s legal affairs committee hearing on collective rights management on Monday.  She was one of 13 stakeholders in a detailed programme which showed just how many different stakeholders will be affected by the directive when it comes into force.  Out of the 13 presentations, only Janine looked at the issue from a non-music point of view.

Following the publication in July of the European Commission’s proposal for a directive on collective rights management, the SAA has now published its detailed comments on the proposal.

The Socialist group of the European Parliament organised a conference last week entitled “Copyright: What is Broken and How to Mend it?”.  Such debates are necessary if we are to escape the confrontation we have seen over the last year.