Brussels, 06/11/2012 (Agence Europe) - Too slow, too many restrictions, too much diversity - experts invited on Tuesday 6 November to address the members of the European Parliament's education and culture committee about online access to cultural and creative works were hardly enthusiastic. Doris Pack (EPP, Germany), who chairs the parliamentary committee, said Europe's cultural heritage may be kept alive only if all technical possibilities are used to the full. Thanks to online services, European education and culture are available to everyone, she added.
Four experts gave their opinion of what should be done to facilitate online access to cultural works and gave their vision of the challenges shaping up before them such as the role of online archiving, authorisation for placing data and copyrights on line as well as the problems linked to the legal aspects. The former president of the International Federation of Television Archives (IFTA), Peter Dusek, spoke of the vast variety of existing authorisation systems for access to archives (especially audiovisual archives). He said it was absolutely necessary to reach a united Europe able to speak with a single voice on cultural themes and to differentiate between individual and mass use of data in attempts to regulate copyright. Paul Keller, an expert involved in a broad range of digital projects, especially Europeana, spoke of the vocation of public cultural institutions such as museums and highlighted the contradiction that exists on accessibility of works subject to copyright, which are freely accessible to the public on museum premises but not available online due to fastidious copyright procedures. The specialist lawyer, Anne-Catherine Lorrain, said it was necessary to envisage simplified models and to ensure online access to cultural heritage. In her view, the starting point should be changed and there should no longer be focus on illegal content but rather on access possibilities to what is not yet lawful. Stefan Gradmann, a professor in information sciences, spoke of the problems relating to the expansion of Europeana. He proposed the creation of a group of European experts to explain and clarify elements of reform to the European Commission and the EP. He also evoked possible cooperation between Europeana and Google, insisting on contract transparency.
Piotr Borys (EPP, Poland) believes the European Union to be in an absurd situation, saying it is necessary to launch harmonisation of existing standards via a common denominator based on the model of public/private partnership. Malika Benarab-Attou (Greens/EFA, France) felt it was important to reconsider the duration of copyright and the current approach to heritage, where the heirs of an artist receive royalties for a work without being the creators of that work. Jean-Marie Cavada (EPP, France) stressed that there is no cultural economy without copyright, saying it is essential to have royalties but that it is necessary to reach legal harmonisation of existing systems. Concerned by the progress made by other continents, Marietje Schaake (ALDE, NL) argued for a more flexible system, asserting that the legislative work must be speeded up to overcome our own conflicts. Currently, about 15-20% of works are digitalised and only 1.5% of films are digitalised, said Detlef Eckert of the European Commission DG on the Information Society. He likened the challenge of digitalisation of works to an enormous mountain that one has only just started to climb, where the question of financing the digitalisation process will play an essential role. The directive on orphan works is a step in the right direction but does not resolve everything, he stressed. The Commission hopes to reach financing for Europeana in the context of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), Eckert added, also evoking the need, in 2013, to find forward-looking innovative licensing models, independently of copyright review. By way of conclusion, Doris Pack recalled the major challenge facing the European Union compared to its global partners. The EU is not a State but a federation of States, in which it takes time to adopt a directive and where transposition into national bodies of law takes even more time. In the meantime, technology moves forward, she said. It is therefore necessary to give preference to a practical rather than legalistic approach if one wants to move forward, she warned. (IL/transl.jl)