Brussels, 21/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament is preparing the next round of copyright reform. 58 MEPs sent a letter to the European Commission on Tuesday 21 June, urging it to, "tackle the transfer of value". They also call for a reduction in the exemptions granted to services such as YouTube.
In a press release, the S&D group explains "Our message is clear: a single digital market without content is doomed to failure!" Socialist MEPs are supported by MEPs from the majority in the EPP group, as well as 5 in the ALDE group and 1 from the GUE.
Their letter highlights the lack of benefits to the creative sector, despite increasing use of its content. They criticised the lack of legal security surrounding the status of online services: current provisions in the directive on e-commerce (2000/31/EC) allow platforms and intermediaries such as YouTube to benefit from exemptions to copyright rules because they are supposed to be neutral and passive host services.
The Vice President for the Digital Market, Andrus Ansip, said that the situation leads to imbalances. During a meeting with the press, he emphasised that the Google subsidiary, which has 1 billion users and pays itself through advertising, does not finance the music industry apart from around €600 million a year, while the Swedish streaming service, Spotify, which has 30 million paid subscriptions, contributes around €1.6 billion.
The MEPs' letter therefore calls on the Commission to ensure that its next copyright review (to be presented on 21 September at the same time as the revision of the "telecoms framework") includes exemptions in the area of responsibility for online service providers that really are neutral and passive. The letter also pointed out that these exemptions should not apply to services that play an active role in the distribution, promotion and monetisation of content, to the expense of creators.
IMPALA, the association of independent music producers, was obviously delighted with the initiative by the 58 MEPs. Its Executive Chair, Helen Smith, said that "Tackling the transfer of value is essential not only for musicians, but for the entire value chain, and of course ultimately for the fans themselves. The Commission has already committed to fixing this problem which is a source of friction and inefficiency in the licensing market. It is a key priority for the EU's copyright review". (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)