Brussels, 09/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - Surrounded by a wave of criticism regarding the draft report by Julia Reda (Greens/EFA, Germany) on copyright reform, the French Parti Pirate has launched a website to provide the public with information regarding the substance of the MEP's proposals.
On this site (http://www.reformonsledroitdauteur.eu/ ), the Parti Pirate is hoping to launch “an informed and immediate debate on the essential adjustments to copyright in the digital era”. The Parti Pirate says that it has been inundated with the negative reactions provoked in France by the report by Julia Reda on copyright harmonisation in Europe. The political party states “using a mixture of discrete influence and hysterical denigration, the management companies and right holders appear to be completely hand in glove with the political class, which has not ceased to wade in, without debating”. It accuses the companies managing the rights of having created a situation of inertia in order to continue to benefit from significant profits, to the disadvantage of the authors and for subsequently having tackled the vice-president of the European Parliament's legal affairs committee, Jean-Marie Cavada (ALDE, France), “sitting on his copyright and who has a retrograde and patriarchal vision of creativity and policy”. Cavada and other MEPs at the JURI committee, including many French members, harshly criticised Julia Reda's proposals during the copyright debate on 23 February last (see EUROPE 112061). (Isabelle Lamberty)