Copyright in the EU: UPDATE Pearle conference Geneva - agenda point 12 Saturday 30 May 2009

COPYRIGHT in DIFFERENT POLICY AREAS Obvious initiatives – copyright legislation. Example: term of extension of copyright and related rights Related areas ◦ Information society. Example: telecom package / in MS: piracy and enforcement ◦ Consumer policy. Example : eYou Guidance (advice on digital rights – multi-territorial licensing for digital content) ◦ Cultural policy. Example: cultural and creative industries platform ◦ Taxation: VAT on cultural services. Example: consultation on VAT of labour-intensive services ◦ Competition. Example: Cisac-case ◦ Trade. Economy of rights (IP/ TRIPS) Debate on copyrights at different fora, conferences, seminars, EP committees, meetings, … 2

PROPOSAL FOR EXTENSION OF TERM OF PROTECTION : the context Basis = Directive 2006/116/EC on the term of protection of copyright and related rights. ◦ Proposal from Commission (July 2008) extension from 50 to 95 years term of protection of performers and recordings ◦ Proposal from Commission to harmonise calculation of co- written music works  A very limited proposal i.e. (session) musicians only / recorded music only/ co-written works music & words only  Purpose : - to give session musicians a pension - to help recording business which suffered from decreasing sales due to illegal downloading - to harmonise the calculation of term of copyright protection of co-written works 3

PROPOSAL FOR EXTENSION OF TERM OF PROTECTION : update EP voted in favour of extension (377,178, 31), on the basis of a compromise proposal : 70 years instead of the Commission proposal 95 y EP voted in favour of harmonised way of calculating the the term of protection of a musical composition with words, being 70 years after the death of the last of the following persons to survive, whether or not these persons are designated as co-authors: the author of the lyrics and the composer of the musical composition => it should concern contributions which were specifically created for the respective musical composition with words. 4

PROPOSAL FOR EXTENSION OF TERM OF PROTECTION : activities Major debate. ◦ Unusual: academics taking position ◦ AV sector: actors want to be included ◦ Parliament: many different opinions, even within the same political group ◦ CUP (copyright users platform) + consumers => Several letters at different stages of the legislative process ◦ Pearle => seperate letters & position papers & study on pension situation of artists Pearle members (FI, HU, FR, …)=> letters to own government 5

PROPOSAL FOR EXTENSION OF TERM OF PROTECTION : next steps 1st reading by Council ◦ Czech presidency is not interested in finalising the process. ◦ Swedish presidency to lead  Further discussion in working groups  Coreper discusses working group proposal  Council position Text is discussed at Working group meetings until a proposal is negotiated which can be adopted by the Competiveness Council 6

PROPOSAL TERM OF PROTECTION: next steps Options: - Council rejects proposal => back to EC - Council makes a counter proposal => text goes back to EP  thus: progress to be further monitored 7

OBSERVATIONS 1: general Content-wise : focus on digital environment Tension between protection / enforcement and (free) access Public discours: focus on the (poor) artist Intellectual property = big business 8

OBSERVATIONS II: EU approach EP : memorandum - to lay a ground for future work in EP ◦ Calls for a European legislation which finds a balance in providing freedom to disseminate culture and which equally protect rights Commission: what strategy? ◦ Criticism on fragmented approach >< on purpose? ◦ Intentions for the next years? a European homogeneous copyright licensing system / EU approach on collective rights mgt in internet 9

Questions Place of the performing arts in this debate? - Mainly “offline” - Growingly involved in “online” Issues at stake for performing arts? What messages for next EP / EC? 10