Belgian Presidency’s Copyright Conference focuses on Authors’ and Performers’ Fair Remuneration
10 April 2024
As part of the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU, a two-day conference on copyright was organised in Namur, Belgium on 8 and 9 April to delve into “The Action of the EU and its Member States in Favor of Fair Remuneration for Authors, Performers and Creative Industries in the Digital Content Landscape”.
EU and national policies supporting the fair remuneration of authors and performers in the digital era were presented by policy makers, researchers, and representatives from the cultural and creative sectors, with a specific focus on the implementation of the 2019 Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, Artifical Intelligence and buy-out contracts practices.
FERA welcomes the initiative bringing much needed light to the evolution of authors’ and performers’ rights and bargaining power, and the positive statements from policy-makers insisting on the essential importance to assert creators’ ownership of their work and their ability to by fairly remunerated for their exploitation.
FERA however heard with great concern statements endorsing the expropriation of authors’ and performers’ rights to the benefit of AI providers when existed copyright material is used to train AI models – at a time where there is no clear path for authors and performers to effectively exercise the reservation of rights provided by CDSM Directive art. 4, and no evidence that AI providers actually respect said reservation when exercised.
FERA also regrets that little to no mention was made of the socio-economic reality of authors and performers in discussions on the use of buy-outs and lump-sum payments in audiovisual authors’ and performers’ contracts. Despite the rise in audiovisual production volumes in Europe over the last few years, abusive contractual practices still prevent European audiovisual authors to build sustainable careers, and for Screen Directors to reach a socio-economic situation consistent with their responsibility and obligation to deliver the finished audiovisual work – in all types of production’s context, and often under severe time and cost pressure which they have to bear throughout the creative production process.
To go further:
Conference programme including all presentations: https://economie.fgov.be/en/events/belgian-copyright-conference