Brussels, 09/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - Has the pendulum swung too far in favour of licensing in the White Paper on copyright? The platform Copyright for Creativity (C4C) thinks it has.
The interest group laments the European Commission's positive bias in the preliminary version of the White Paper, which has leaked to the press.
Licences are referred to regularly in the draft as a way of ensuring respect for copyright. “The Commission is an apologist for licences and believes that all problems related to copyright can be resolved through licensing contracts”, says Caroline De Cock, the coordinator of the C4C platform. She adds that this could be the case if contracts were drawn up fairly. However, the parties are very rarely on an equal footing. Publishers or content distributors are generally in a position of strength over creators and consumers. De Cock argued that, in certain situations, exceptions to copyright would be preferable, for example, in text and data mining. In future, she argues that licensing contracts should not go any further than the exceptions already legally enshrined, and therefore avoid taking legitimate rights away from users, or requiring them to pay to exercise these rights.
Creators conspicuous by their absence. Furthermore, De Cock finds it “shocking” that so little mention is made of creators and consumers in the White Paper. “The document is called a White Paper on copyright, not publishers' rights!”, she noted. She said that, in its analysis of the value chain for the creation and distribution of content, the Commission should take more account of this, as publishers and distributors are simply intermediaries between creators and consumers.
Timetable. There is still no date for the publication of the White Paper. The document was supposed to be approved by the College of Commissioners in July, with the final meeting scheduled for Wednesday 23 of the month. However, the inter-services consultation closed on Friday 4 July, and it is reported that two negative opinions were returned (DG Connect and DG Research). This will require the text to be reworded by DG Internal Market, which suggests that the White Paper is unlikely to be presented before September, after the summer break. (MD)