Riga, 20/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - With criticism of the draft report on copyright reform (Ed: on which more than 500 amendments have been put down), raining down from authors and creators, particularly French, rapporteur Julia Reda (Greens/EFA, Germany) held a press conference at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Monday 20 April, flanked by three creators who back her stance (Cory Doctorow, Anglo-Canadian author and journalist, Lexi Alexander, German director and producer in Hollywood, and Neil Jomunsi, French online author and publisher). This press conference preceded a hearing Intellectual Property Rights in the information age: views of new authors organised by the Greens/EFA.
“The debate is highly controversial”, Reda acknowledged. She was pleased, however, to have received the support of European libraries, which are calling for an ambitious reform, of some creators, such as Lexi Alexander who want to “debunk the myth” that all creators oppose ambitious reform of copyright, and of a number of MEPs, such as Cecilia Wikström of Sweden and Marietje Schaake of the Netherlands from the ALDE Group, who have put down “good amendments”. Reda said that, at this stage, it would be premature to draw conclusions on the positions of the political groups with regard to her draft report. “We are still at the start of the discussion but this is good because discussions are beginning even before the (JURI) committee has presented a proposal”, she noted. She added that, at the moment, positions seem quite entrenched, even within the same political group: in the ALDE Group, for instance, some are quite supportive and others, such as shadow rapporteur Jean-Marie Cavada, are totally opposed to all reform.
Copyright involves highly technical questions that need to be further pursued in the discussions that will take place in the Parliament. One of these issues relates to copyright exceptions, and especially exceptions in research and education. The European Commission has announced that, in the proposal it is due to submit in September, it is going to amend certain aspects of the current framework, such as the list of exceptions. “What we need to know is whether the exceptions relating to research and education are to apply only to non-commercial use”, said Reda.
“I have made very concrete proposals. (…) I intend to see things through and we will discuss compromise amendments. I think that we'll come to an agreement”, she stated. The ITRE and IMCO committees have adopted opinions on the draft report which Reda considers to be “very encouraging” but the CULT committee has not yet been able to reach agreement (see EUROPE 11297) (our translation throughout). (Isabelle Lamberty)