Brussels, 17/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - On 16 April, the committee on culture and education (CULT) of the European Parliament rejected the draft opinion of Isabella Adinolfi (EFD, Italy) on copyright reform (14 votes against, 12 in favour and no abstentions).
This draft opinion called on the committee on legal affairs to take account of several parameters in the draft resolution of Julia Reda (Greens/EFA, Germany), which has come in for a great deal of criticism from the cultural associations (see EUROPE 11295). “This is a missed opportunity to defend well-balanced copyright reform, which is under threat from Pirate Party MEP Julia Reda”, lamented the French EPP member, Marc Joulaud, who rejected the text.
Joulaud argues that the 'CULT' could have sent out a strong message of support to the creative sectors, calling for progress on key issues such as the lending of digital books, data mining and the status of online service providers. However, the fact that the rapporteur on this opinion is a 'europhobe' (Isabella Adinolfi is a member of the Italian '5 Stelle' movement: Ed) and that she was supported by a party of Socialist MEPs made the text unacceptable to the majority, particularly on the question of interpreting copyright exemptions. The opinion tended towards total legal insecurity for authors, which would oblige them systematically to use long and expensive legal proceedings which most of them would simply not be able to afford in order to assert their rights, Joulaud explained. He regretted the fact that the discussion had not been able to take place “due to the irresponsibility of a few and their refusal to discuss it”. (Isabelle Lamberty)