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.

Freedom of contract is seen as a corner stone of much of modern business and is often a key argument against regulation. But sometimes contractual freedom is a fiction and to defend it is to perpetuate injustice.

The European Parliament’s Internal Market Committee (IMCO), the first to vote an opinion on the Commission’s Copyright Directive proposal, failed to vote on any of 5 amendments calling for audiovisual authors’ to be paid proportionately to the exploitation of their works. The 5 amendments, which came from MEPs from the two biggest political groups in the Parliament, all called for an unwaivable right to remuneration for screenwriters and directors for the on-demand exploitation of their works.

One of the overriding themes of the Copyright Directive proposal was to re-balance negotiations. The key word was “fair”. The Commission used this justification for its press publishers’ right, the value gap proposal and the transparency triangle.

Ahead of the deadline for amendments of 12th April in the lead committee of the European Parliament, audiovisual authors call for a concrete measure to turn the positive rhetoric on the need for authors to be fairly remunerated into reality.

Just months after a Resolution on the cultural and creative industries called for the “establishment of the right to fair remuneration and legal protection for authors”, MEPs have given a concrete sign that they want to make that call a reality.

A delegation of audiovisual authors and their collective management organisations (CMOs) from across Europe met Members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg to discuss copyright package ahead of the announcement of the winner of the European Parliament’s LUX Film Prize.

SAA acknowledges with disappointment the European Parliament Resolution on 2001 Copyright Directive noting the gap between the rhetoric and the absence of actual concrete provisions to guarantee authors are remunerated fairly for the online exploitation of their works.

As a kid, one my treats was to get a pick n mix bag of sweets before going to watch a film.  I’d have to share choices with my sister and friends who’d throw in a couple I didn’t like, but it was all part of the excitement of going to the cinema.

SAA welcomes the European Parliament’s adoption of Pavel Svoboda’s report on intellectual property rights.

The recent report by Green Pirate MEP Julia Reda really hammers home how the polarisation of the authors’ rights/ copyright debate has made it difficult for creators to talk about the future of their industry.  The latest blog post by Ms Reda asserts as much, too.

The European Parliament now has 4 committees looking at the 2001 copyright Directive.