Brussels, 12/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - The organised collection of royalties is crucial for authors and artists, who do not themselves have the resources to monitor use of their work, but the way this is carried out in each country differs widely, resulting in a lack of transparency and homogeneity that is greatly detrimental to some artists. The Greens/EFA Group at the European Parliament organised a public conference on changing the collection of royalties and the copyright system, chaired by Eva Lichtenberger of Austria, Sandrine Bélier of France and Helga Trüpel of Germany, all three MEPS are in the Greens/EFA. The conference discussed changes to the system being considered by the European Commission in a new draft directive on governance, transparency, online copyright and trans-European access to cultural goods.
At present, royalties are collected nationally by means of closed, secretive systems that are of no benefit to artists and are not up to the task in the electronic age. In 2005, the European Commission published a recommendation on the collection of royalties and online copyright in order to improve at EU level the granting of copyright for online services. The absence of any EU copyright system is an obstacle to developing the full potential of online music. The idea was to provide clear EU rules on the governance, transparency and monitoring of copyright and royalty issues, whether individually or collectively managed. Multi-country licences can be granted to provide easier access to databases, libraries and indexes. At the conference, speakers explained that very differing methods were used for royalty collection from one member state to the next. Scandinavia tends to use open systems and is happy to cooperate to make them more efficient, but other countries, like France, use a chaotic, complex mesh of systems which charge too much to artists and provide them with too little income for the use of their works. The system does not work well for either established artists or newcomers, explained Edouard Barreiro, director of French consumer watchdog UFC-QueChoisir's research centre. To deal with this, proper regulation of the way royalties companies operate is required either by means of competition (artists choosing the royalties company of their choice) or by means of rules and regulations, he said. Kelvin Smits, director of Younison Europe, a European organisation to protect the copyright of Belgian-based artists, has great expectations of the new directive. He said it provided a unique opportunity to establish a proper system for the distribution of the royalties collected, which needs to be harmonised and work to everyone's benefit. These views were shared by Erwin Angad-Gauer, head of Platform Makers, a copyright and royalties organisation in the Netherlands. He said a harmonised system was needed that put artists first and that artists, authors and consumers had common interests. Pierre Gerard, the director general of Jamendo, a legal and free-of-charge music download website, said it is possible to operate a system to the benefit of both consumers and artists. Consumers can use “Creative Commons” permits to freely download and share music, with the direct permission of artists choosing to use Jamendo to share and promote their music. The company operates without any intermediaries, selling music directly to companies and forwarding the royalties to artists. Saskia Walzel, consumer rights worker at the British organisation Consumer Focus, said that artists must always be able to take royalty and copyright questions to court in the event of unfair behaviour by leading royalties companies.
Artists and authors must come first in any changes to the royalty system to deal with the spread of artwork online, said Helga Trüpel. Greater transparency about the distribution of royalties is required and the system needs to be simplified. Detailed examination of the various business models is required and contract law needs to be changed, she explained, adding that royalties companies are the best solution, but they need to operate more openly in a fair, competitive system. On behalf of freedom and cultural diversity, Helga Trüpel and Sandrine Bélier said that the Greens/EFA, oppose ACTA, on the grounds that it is perfectly possible to oppose the trade deal and still defend copyright and royalties, if artists and authors are truly at the centre of one's concerns. (IL/transl.fl)