Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Copyright: Brussels wants to spare the film industry – Les Echos

The Commission has unveiled the first tracks of its digital strategy, including the expected reform of the rights of auteur.Bruxelles seems to renounce the Big Bang.

Create a truly European digital market, where Google and Amazon of tomorrow will not only born but also flourish. Brussels ambitions for the digital future of the European Union are beginning to take shape. The Commission will announce that on May 6 its strategy in this area. But the policy debate held Wednesday between Commissioners has already led to sketch future reforms.

In the first row, figure that on copyright . This should definitely be enacted in the fall, but it seems that the Commission has already renounced the great big bang dreaded by the film and audiovisual industries. These however had nothing to worry about the ambitions of Andrus Ansip, the Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for numerical questions. To all those who have succeeded in his office since the fall of the Estonian repeated the same story: he considers abnormal “not having been able to follow the World Cup football with Estonian comment” , while his wife “should be able to follow the soap operas of his Estonian chains in Brussels.” “It’s an obsession with him” , ridicules a lobbyist.



Haro on the “geoblocking”

This responds to a simple principle: even on the Internet, it does is not possible to access from one EU country to channels of another European country due to the existence of copyright (it’s the same principle for streaming, where a service like Netflix n ‘ not the same catalog by country). These are only sold on a national basis and the principle of territoriality says is the basis for financing the chain. If Canal + put so much money in the tricolor cinema is indeed in return for the exclusive operation of these first-run movies on French territory, and it would not be a good European channel market can provide the same offer … The principle is similar to sports rights, they too sold on a national basis.

Obviously, Andrus Ansip does not want to blow this system, as he had expressed the intention. In the framework note that the basis for the debate on Wednesday – including “Les Echos” obtained a copy – there is no question of ending the principle of territoriality or impose European licenses for the right cinema in terms of copyright, as Estonian had imagined. Instead, two tracks are considered. First allow “a full and complete portability for legally acquired content”: in the future, subscribers to Canal + or Bein Sport will be able to watch their favorite channels abroad when they are there on holiday, which is not possible today.



Buy series like the English?

Second track, Brussels wants to “facilitate” passive sales “cross-border services” . Behind this jargon, a simple idea: “a Belgian resident should be able, for example, have online access to content today only available for UK residents” as Sky channel for example, provided the latter makes no advertising outside its territory to respect the principle of territoriality. The thing seems difficult to implement, especially as the Commission states that this possibility “will save the value of the rights of the film industry” . However, the fact that sports rights are not explicitly mentioned in this exception are some to say they might be the only ones affected by a reform of the territorial principle.

The Note also mentions another idea: extend the exceptions to copyright in the field of research and education.

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