2007-02-12
Review of the 4th European Creators’ Conference
Organised by the European Writers Congress-EWC in cooperation with the European Federation of Journalists-EFJ, the International Association of Art/IAA Europe and InterGU
Authors Rights and the European Agenda 2007-2013 - Competitiveness & digital challenges, collective action & cultural diversity
Under the patronage of the Finnish EU Presidency , Hosted by the European Commission, DG EAC
Authors Rights and the European Agenda 2007-2013 - Competitiveness & digital challenges, collective action & cultural diversity
Under the patronage of the Finnish EU Presidency , Hosted by the European Commission, DG EAC
An author is a writer is a creator is a generator is an initiator is an originator is a constructor is a designer - is a - so, what is an author NOT????
Dictionary-zapping is funny: typing A U T H O R, searching for synonyms - all ends up: an author is a God!
However, authors are not treated like Gods especially in our information society age of total enlightenment. A God is put in a temple, everyone adores the God. The God is under special protection. And the author?
The Conference Authors Rights and the European Agenda 2007-2013: Competitive-ness & digital challenges, collective action & cultural diversity brought together writers, translators, audio-visual authors, journalists, composers, visual artists, photographers, digital artists, musicians and their organisations from different European Union countries, but also from European countries outside the European Union. They gathered in Brussels on Sep-tember 20 2006 on the occasion of the 4th European Conference of Creators Organisations on authors rights and put the symbol of an god-like author into question: What counts an author in the European Union? How can web-age-authors survive? How to protect their crea-tions? Is there a forced legal transfer or legal presumptions in favour of publishers, producers and broadcasters? Do we have a transparent and fair Copyright legislation in Europe which promotes collective rights management? How to create an open and competitive market for online content?
The Conference states a growing attack on the protection of authors rights.
An attack? A current example: the Robbie Williams tour in Germany. Journalists and photogra-phers were asked to sign away all their moral and economic rights if they wanted to take pictures of the event! Another example: the European Union institutions themselves aim at limiting pho-tographers access to events by the creation of a free photo service available on line. What about protection of independent journalism and what about remuneration?
The discussions during the conference addressed deep concerns over the melting protection of authors rights all over Europe.
A final statement - the Brussels Resolution on authors rights - calls upon civil society, politi-cians, companies and stakeholders to take concerted actions to oppose constant attempts to clutch authors moral and economic rights.
Another hot topic was concerns over collective rights management at the EU level, especially the status of reprographic rights organisations (RROs) when collecting and distributing authors fees for secondary uses of their creations. Imagine, that in many European countries authors do not even receive any share of the amount collected by RROs!!! Not a god-like and by far not a fair treatment!
Authors need a stronger and stricter copyright protection of their economic rights. On the other side, they also need more than ever protection of their moral or integrity rights to secure their economic independence and to defend the authenticity of their creations.
Nearly all conference contributions called on collecting societies to ensure that they operate de-mocratically and transparently. The voice of authors organisations must be represented within these structures, as authorship is the source of all creative industries.
The conference speakers welcome the European Commissions and the European Parlia-ments efforts to respect and protect the role of the cultural/creative industries and to create an efficient and transparent market. EU legislation enables authors and their industry part-ners to reap a fair award for their talents and skills, thereby creating new inducement for the kind of innovative and creative content production which will strengthen the quality and the competitiveness of Europes content sector. However, writers organisations all over Europe are very much concerned about the European Commissions focus on collective manage-ment of authors' rights as an obstacle to free competition in a single market for online con-tent. A negative impact caused by legislation on the one hand and bad contractual practices on the other hand destroy competition in favour of authors, they say.
Another discussion stream within the conference concerned the ambitious Digital Library Ini-tiative of the European Union as an important step to form a European collective memory aiming at the accessibility of Europes cultural and scientific heritage to all people. Hereby the authors associations plead for taking into account the consent from authors and other rights holders for non-public-domain-works through voluntary contractual solutions supported by collective licensing schemes and collective management The authors associations aim at a legal security for the authors and other rights holders to guarantee equitable remuneration for the digitisation and making available of their works
Another important subject of the conference was the recent European Commissions Rec-ommendation on the Collective Management of Music to facilitate cross-border licensing of music to commercial entities. Creators associations qualify this Recommendation as a viable policy strategy for the protection of authors rights. However, they fear that this Recommenda-tion underestimates the importance that nationally based collecting societies have as trusted partners for authors and for the European cultural diversity. The European Commission should take into account, that collective societies function as protecting and protected mo-nopolies under the control of their respective national governments thus guaranteeing equal access to an extensive and diverse repertoire of works. In the present form the Recommen-dation could harm European cultural diversity and cut down intercultural dialogue.
Aidan White from the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) comes to a quite bitter con-clusion: As always we have a major problem in dealing with the Commission when it comes to defence of cultural interests. The European Union in its declarations, statements and pre-ambles to treaties is always ready to state its attachment to the values of freedom and cul-tural expression, but every time we ask for this to be reflected in policy we find that economic and competition, the first priorities of Union institutions, always come first. [] Across the European broadcasting and publishing industry the definition of competitiveness can be summed up by a headlong rush to the bottom in terms of standards. Everywhere, media em-ployers maintain their levels of profitability by introducing almost scandalous principles of employment personal contracts in which to get a job people have to sign away their rights, young people who are subject to forms of exploitation having to work for nothing at all or a miserable allowance just to get one foot on the media employment ladder. The hostility to un-ions and genuine social dialogue is more profound than ever. These are the competitive is-sues which the European Union should be looking at. It will do no good at all for the Euro-pean Union market to be built upon endorsement of harsh employment conditions, denial of creators rights and the isolation and elimination of minority and creative programming just to be able to match the worst of the United States market. [] The EFJ is deeply concerned that media, far from contributing to inter-cultural dialogue and raising awareness of the need for tolerance in our societies, is in fact contributing to divisions and failing to provide a struc-ture for dialogue between communities through pluralist and informed media. [] This is the moment for thinking clearly about competitiveness in the context of the cultural values of tol-erance and peace-building []. [] The coming years provide us with an opportunity to im-prove and review the information landscape and for strengthening pluralism, but this will not be done by loosening the attachment to traditional European standards of diversity and de-cent conditions for media professionalism. Essential to this is the highest level of protection for the works of authors, journalists and other creators.
Further Information:
European Writers Congress
www.european-writers-congress.org
Authors rights and the European Agenda 2007 -2013, Authors works, EU content policy and global services Intervention Aidan White, EFJ
http://www.ifj.org/default.asp?index=4290
The Brussels Resolution:
http://www.ifj-europe.org
Dictionary-zapping is funny: typing A U T H O R, searching for synonyms - all ends up: an author is a God!
However, authors are not treated like Gods especially in our information society age of total enlightenment. A God is put in a temple, everyone adores the God. The God is under special protection. And the author?
The Conference Authors Rights and the European Agenda 2007-2013: Competitive-ness & digital challenges, collective action & cultural diversity brought together writers, translators, audio-visual authors, journalists, composers, visual artists, photographers, digital artists, musicians and their organisations from different European Union countries, but also from European countries outside the European Union. They gathered in Brussels on Sep-tember 20 2006 on the occasion of the 4th European Conference of Creators Organisations on authors rights and put the symbol of an god-like author into question: What counts an author in the European Union? How can web-age-authors survive? How to protect their crea-tions? Is there a forced legal transfer or legal presumptions in favour of publishers, producers and broadcasters? Do we have a transparent and fair Copyright legislation in Europe which promotes collective rights management? How to create an open and competitive market for online content?
The Conference states a growing attack on the protection of authors rights.
An attack? A current example: the Robbie Williams tour in Germany. Journalists and photogra-phers were asked to sign away all their moral and economic rights if they wanted to take pictures of the event! Another example: the European Union institutions themselves aim at limiting pho-tographers access to events by the creation of a free photo service available on line. What about protection of independent journalism and what about remuneration?
The discussions during the conference addressed deep concerns over the melting protection of authors rights all over Europe.
A final statement - the Brussels Resolution on authors rights - calls upon civil society, politi-cians, companies and stakeholders to take concerted actions to oppose constant attempts to clutch authors moral and economic rights.
Another hot topic was concerns over collective rights management at the EU level, especially the status of reprographic rights organisations (RROs) when collecting and distributing authors fees for secondary uses of their creations. Imagine, that in many European countries authors do not even receive any share of the amount collected by RROs!!! Not a god-like and by far not a fair treatment!
Authors need a stronger and stricter copyright protection of their economic rights. On the other side, they also need more than ever protection of their moral or integrity rights to secure their economic independence and to defend the authenticity of their creations.
Nearly all conference contributions called on collecting societies to ensure that they operate de-mocratically and transparently. The voice of authors organisations must be represented within these structures, as authorship is the source of all creative industries.
The conference speakers welcome the European Commissions and the European Parlia-ments efforts to respect and protect the role of the cultural/creative industries and to create an efficient and transparent market. EU legislation enables authors and their industry part-ners to reap a fair award for their talents and skills, thereby creating new inducement for the kind of innovative and creative content production which will strengthen the quality and the competitiveness of Europes content sector. However, writers organisations all over Europe are very much concerned about the European Commissions focus on collective manage-ment of authors' rights as an obstacle to free competition in a single market for online con-tent. A negative impact caused by legislation on the one hand and bad contractual practices on the other hand destroy competition in favour of authors, they say.
Another discussion stream within the conference concerned the ambitious Digital Library Ini-tiative of the European Union as an important step to form a European collective memory aiming at the accessibility of Europes cultural and scientific heritage to all people. Hereby the authors associations plead for taking into account the consent from authors and other rights holders for non-public-domain-works through voluntary contractual solutions supported by collective licensing schemes and collective management The authors associations aim at a legal security for the authors and other rights holders to guarantee equitable remuneration for the digitisation and making available of their works
Another important subject of the conference was the recent European Commissions Rec-ommendation on the Collective Management of Music to facilitate cross-border licensing of music to commercial entities. Creators associations qualify this Recommendation as a viable policy strategy for the protection of authors rights. However, they fear that this Recommenda-tion underestimates the importance that nationally based collecting societies have as trusted partners for authors and for the European cultural diversity. The European Commission should take into account, that collective societies function as protecting and protected mo-nopolies under the control of their respective national governments thus guaranteeing equal access to an extensive and diverse repertoire of works. In the present form the Recommen-dation could harm European cultural diversity and cut down intercultural dialogue.
Aidan White from the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) comes to a quite bitter con-clusion: As always we have a major problem in dealing with the Commission when it comes to defence of cultural interests. The European Union in its declarations, statements and pre-ambles to treaties is always ready to state its attachment to the values of freedom and cul-tural expression, but every time we ask for this to be reflected in policy we find that economic and competition, the first priorities of Union institutions, always come first. [] Across the European broadcasting and publishing industry the definition of competitiveness can be summed up by a headlong rush to the bottom in terms of standards. Everywhere, media em-ployers maintain their levels of profitability by introducing almost scandalous principles of employment personal contracts in which to get a job people have to sign away their rights, young people who are subject to forms of exploitation having to work for nothing at all or a miserable allowance just to get one foot on the media employment ladder. The hostility to un-ions and genuine social dialogue is more profound than ever. These are the competitive is-sues which the European Union should be looking at. It will do no good at all for the Euro-pean Union market to be built upon endorsement of harsh employment conditions, denial of creators rights and the isolation and elimination of minority and creative programming just to be able to match the worst of the United States market. [] The EFJ is deeply concerned that media, far from contributing to inter-cultural dialogue and raising awareness of the need for tolerance in our societies, is in fact contributing to divisions and failing to provide a struc-ture for dialogue between communities through pluralist and informed media. [] This is the moment for thinking clearly about competitiveness in the context of the cultural values of tol-erance and peace-building []. [] The coming years provide us with an opportunity to im-prove and review the information landscape and for strengthening pluralism, but this will not be done by loosening the attachment to traditional European standards of diversity and de-cent conditions for media professionalism. Essential to this is the highest level of protection for the works of authors, journalists and other creators.
Further Information:
European Writers Congress
www.european-writers-congress.org
Authors rights and the European Agenda 2007 -2013, Authors works, EU content policy and global services Intervention Aidan White, EFJ
http://www.ifj.org/default.asp?index=4290
The Brussels Resolution:
http://www.ifj-europe.org
A report by Tanya Wittal-Düerkop, EU correspondent of Arts Management Network
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