"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"

The digital evolution of broadcasting, with the development of on-demand services, has led the European institutions to propose a reform of the 1993 CabSat Directive in the form of a new Regulation.

We, European citizens and filmmakers, live in a Europe that is a standard-bearer of hope when it remains faithful to its values of tolerance, open-mindedness and diversity and stands against the current trends towards nationalism, alternative facts and mistrust.

Last week (31st August), the European Commission published a Eurobarometer survey on “Cross-border access to online content”.

Following a meeting between European Commission Vice President, Andrus Ansip, and SAA patrons Bertrand Tavernier, Roger Michell and Hugh Stoddart (see here) on 22nd June, SAA patron Bertrand Tavernier wrote to the Vice President to follow up on some important issues discussed at the meeting, such as film authors’ rights, territoriality and distribution, film heritage.  You can read his letter below as well as additional comments from German screenwriter and SAA patron, Jochen Greve, and Franco-swiss dir

The Digital Single Market Strategy adopted by the Commission on 6 May was very much discussed during the first week-end of the Cannes Film Festival, one of the biggest gatherings of cinema professionals in the world.

On 6th May the European Commission will announce its strategy for the Digital Single Market.

We are Europeans. We are authors. We are consumers. We are story tellers whose works tell the tales of our continent.  We are here to help write the story of Europe’s future, a bright future. We are characters in it. We want it to be a classic and source of inspiration for future generations. We are Europeans, surprised to be a key storyline.

Last year I wrote in the German press about the frustration of seeing unlicensed copies of my work freely available and easy to find on the internet and the absence of legal services delivering the full range of European films I would expect.  I wanted to be provocative to strike the contrast between my expectations and the market delivery, but I also wanted to show that there are possible solutions.  I suggested creating compulsory licences for European audiovisual works.

Think of Europe as a patchwork quilt. One, single quilt made of patches of different shapes and sizes.