The clock is ticking before the deadline expires for submitting the copy right reform amendments on Wednesday 5 September at 12 o’clock. At this stage, however, no solution has as yet been found on the difficult question of the value gap. The compromise amendments from Axel Voss (EPP, Germany) did not receive sufficient report the previous day during the meeting of the shadow rapporteurs (see EUROPE 12087).
Two particularly divisive provisions led to the rejection of the negotiating mandate during the plenary session: the creation of a new neighbouring law for newspaper publishers (article 11) and measures to tackle the value gap (see EUROPE 12056).
On Tuesday 4 September, the rapporteur, Axel Voss, presented new compromise proposals to the shadow rapporteurs (see EUROPE 12087). According to several different sources, he is not said to have received the support of his colleagues. Jean-Marie Cavada MEP (ALDE, France), however, received more responses to his compromise proposals, in any case, on article 13. He suggests, in effect, in contrast to the compromise by Mr Voss, to reintroduce ex-post-technical measures, a kind of algorithm used by the platforms, for distinguishing between protected content and content that is copyright free. When identifying protected content, these platforms would be obliged to either withdraw the content in question or negotiate with the rights holders to make the content copyright free within a timeframe that still needs to be worked out.
As we go to press, the discussions are continuing. According to our analysis, the debate could possibly polarise around the two men. Jean-Marie Cavada asserts that he has the support of France and several other governments. He is currently having discussions with the S&D and ECR and is even seeking the support of certain MEPs at the EPP and Greens/EFA. He explained "What I want is a new form of commerce that requires a rebalancing of the profits made by the platforms and those by the content creators”. He said that he is prepared to make concessions and stated “as long as payment for content creators and journalists is in question, everything else is negotiable. There is no reason to be dictatorial about it!” According to the rumours circulating, rapporteur Axel Voss could possibly (even though this has not been confirmed to us by his office) hopes to put forward a new compromise that reintroduces ex-ante technical measures in an effort to obtain the support of the right wing of the European Parliament.
Nonetheless, given the previous history of this dossier, further upsets cannot be ruled out. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)