21st century copyright for authors and consumers

“Copyright is not a barrier for creative and cultural content to thrive online. We are prepared to lead the debate in the European Parliament and we will seek to make the new proposal clear and effective for both creators and consumers. Both need to be assured of their rights in the Digital Single Market. We expect the European Commission to address various concerns of the right-holders such as more transparency leading to a fairer distribution of money along the value chain. We hope that the Commission proposal will seek to widen access to content through digital technologies and further enhance the cross-border aspect”, said Therese Comodini Cachia MEP, EPP Group Spokeswoman on copyright, in anticipation of the proposal for the modernisation of the EU copyright rules to be approved by the European Commission this week.

“Effective use of copyright must not be a barrier for creativity and the expansion of cultural content. We need to improve the rules so they reflect the technological realities of the 21st century. The improved rules need to address market dysfunctions, such as lack of transparency in processes related to the exploitation of works and disproportionately low or delayed remuneration to authors and creators. We will seek to address aspects of public interest such as the needs of a modern society in teaching, education and research”, added Pavel Svoboda MEP, Chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament.

“Our Group will make sure that it responds to the demands of creators for fair compensation as well as the rightful demand of users for creative and cultural content for better online access. We want users to have access to more diverse audio-visual works on video-on demand platforms. At the same time, we recognise the socio-economic benefits of digital and cross-border teaching and learning processes, and the opportunities offered by text and data mining processes. We will also look at how the Commission's proposals will affect user-generated content”, concluded Therese Comodini Cachia MEP.

The Commission is expected to issue a proposal on copyright in the coming few days.