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Authors' Rights, News

FERA co-signs statement challenging device manufacturers seeking to avoid private copying compensation

5 October 2020

US and Asian consumer device manufacturers are targeting the Visegrad4 countries to avoid private copying compensation

Joint Statement of Organisations representing Authors, Performers, Publishers and Creative workers at EU level

 

Some of the world’s biggest consumer device manufacturers are aggressively targeting the Visegrad Four countries in an effort to weaken national legislation or application of the existing legal framework on private copying. European organisations and unions representing authors, performers, publishers and creative workers therefore call on governments and EU decision-makers to take a firm stand against this new attempt to undermine a system that has long benefitted European creators, culture and society.

The private copying compensation system, which exists in most European countries, including the V4, entails device manufacturers or importers paying a fair compensation that is calculated using market research on the private copying of creative works through the relevant media and devices. The system provides consumers with legal certainty when freely making personal copies of songs, movies and other creative works on their devices. It also does not affect in practice the retail price of devices.

As it stands, private copying compensation has contributed significantly to the remuneration of creators, and the funding of local cultural activities. Festivals, independent local bands, small film production companies – these are just some of the beneficiaries of a broad ranging system. Private copying compensation schemes contribute to fuelling grassroots culture, which eventually impacts the whole cultural sector and reduces the financial burden on Member States’ cultural policy.

The funds created from private copying compensation schemes have been instrumental in providing “first aid” support and a safety net for the most vulnerable creators, who are suffering from the devastating economic impact Covid-19 has had on the entire cultural and creative sector.

Apple, Huawei, LG, Samsung and Xiaomi were the biggest selling brands of mobile devices in Europe in 2018, including in Central and Eastern Europe. Although none of them are based in Europe[1], they are able to launch constant attacks through their trade association in Europe (Digital Europe), through whom they table unacceptable proposals that, if adopted, would deprive creators of their rightful compensation and diminish Europe’s cultural landscape. Their recent focus on the V4 countries has come through their local organisations.

The cultural and creative sector has embraced technology and constantly evolved its practices, including within the application of this crucial compensation scheme. The system evolves through technology and based on the flexible rules that EU law provides. The only archaic and undemocratic practice remains to be that of the giant manufacturers of consumer devices based outside the EU and constantly refusing to comply with EU directives and CJEU rulings requiring them to contribute to the remuneration of creators.

The aforementioned companies lobby governments to prevent adaptation of the legislation, delay agreements on the setting of tariffs for such compensation schemes, refuse the payment of set tariffs and hinder the functioning of the system through their distributors across Europe, including in the V4; or, in parallel, hide themselves behind the safe harbours of online market places to reach EU consumers directly, by-passing any and all EU regulation, including payment of private copy compensation.

Although satisfactory agreements have been reached in certain countries where the law is implemented properly, their attacks continue at political level to weaken the rules that oblige them to pay.

Weakening the current long-established system of private copy compensation would only serve the financial benefit of non-EU based manufacturers at the expense of European creators, the cultural sector and the economy as a whole.

Organisations and unions representing authors, performers, publishers and creative workers in Europe urge the European Commission, national authorities and MEPs from V4 countries to reject these outrageous demands with determination, and to defend European interests in this sector of high economic value by properly implementing national laws in the spirit of the EU directives and Court rulings.

 

Background information:

What is the private copying compensation?

This system is based on European copyright legislation which provides an exception to copyright to allow consumers to make private copies of music or movies they lawfully acquire (Article 5.2(b) of Directive 2001/29/EC). The law requires that when this optional exception is introduced at national level it should be accompanied by a compensation scheme for the authors, performers and other rightholders. Most EU countries implemented a private copying exception via a remuneration included in the price of the consumer devices on which such copies are made. Thanks to those systems, authors, performers and other rightholders are compensated when their works are reproduced for private purposes (copies on smartphones, tablets, computers, USB sticks, etc.).

Despite the changes in consumption, private copying still remains one of the methods through which creative works (musical, artistic, literary, journalistic, audiovisual, visual arts, etc.) are enjoyed. Market researches used as basis of such compensation schemes also illustrate this evolving but continuing consumer behaviour. Whereas this compensation system was initially limited to the copying of content onto blank tapes, it evolved in time to embrace technological developments and was extended to CDs, USBs, PCs, mobile music players, smartphones, tablets and even certain online services, through the rulings of CJEU.

Who pays?

The principle is that the user, i.e. the consumer, is liable for the private copying remuneration, as it is the beneficiary of the exception. In practice, and as approved by the case law of the CJEU, such remuneration is paid by manufacturers and/or by distributors of electronic copy-enabling devices. Many studies have proven that the private copying remuneration does not have any tangible influence on the price of consumer products (neutral or null effect, non-elasticity of consumer prices). The price of smartphones or tablets is not higher in countries where the private copying remuneration applies than in those where it does not. In other terms, private copying remuneration does not affect the price of the product to which it applies.

Currently, consumer electronics are manufactured outside Europe by a limited number of very large North American or South-East Asian companies such as Apple, Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi, LG, Lenovo, OPPO, ONEPlus. These goods are then distributed directly by them or by online retailers like Amazon. These companies are responsible for the payment of private copying remuneration to European creators.

An economic challenge for Europe

The European cultural and creative sectors (CCSs) are one of the major assets of the European economy. They account for 12 million jobs, which is 4 times more than the automotive industry, and 6 times more than the telecommunications industry. The CCSs are among the spearheads of the European digital economy, as creative content is an undeniable driving force in the digital market. The CCSs export and contribute to the vitality of the European digital market.

Creators are at the core of the CCSs’ value chain. Without them, there is no creation of value. Authors, performers and creative workers, as individuals, are vulnerable and depend on their rights to be remunerated for their creative work. The private copying remuneration is an integral part of this fragile ecosystem.

Moreover, the emergency funds created by collective management organisations during the Covid-19 crisis heavily relied on the cultural and social funds bolstered by private copy compensation schemes and thus provided a safety net and needed first aid for the economically vulnerable authors and performers, whose concerts, shows, film shootings, exhibitions, artistic projects and working possibilities stopped.

Yours sincerely,

AEPO-ARTIS – AEPO-ARTIS is a non-profit making organisation that represents 36 European performers’ collective management organisations from 26 different countries. The number of performers represented by the 36 member organisations of AEPO-ARTIS can be estimated at between 400,000 and 500,000. For more information: www.aepo-artis.org

ECSA – The European Composer and Songwriter Alliance represents over 30,000 professional composers and songwriters in 27 European countries. With more than 60 member organisations across Europe, the Alliance speaks for the interests of music creators of art and classical music (contemporary), film and audiovisual music, as well as popular music. http://composeralliance.org

EFJ – The European Federation of Journalists gathers over 320,000 journalists in 72 journalists’ organisations across 45 countries. The EFJ supports its affiliates to foster trade unions and to maintain or create environments in which quality, journalistic independence, pluralism, public service values and decent work in the media exist.

EVA – EVA represents 24 European collective management organisations for fine arts, photography, illustration, design and other visual works for close to 100,000 authors. They manage for authors primary uses, the resale right and they collect and distribute remuneration rights. For more information: www.evartists.org

EuroFIA – The European group of the International Federation of Actors represents performers’ trade unions, guilds and associations in most of the EU and the EEA. It voices the professional concerns and interests of actors (in film, television, radio, theatre and live performance), broadcast professionals, dancers, singers, variety and circus artists and others, with the exception of musicians and visual artists. For more information: http://fia-actors.com

EWC – The European Writers’ Council is the non-profit federation representing 46 national writers’ and literary translators’ associations and unions in 29 European countries, including EU MS as well as Belarus, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey, and Montenegro. EWC’s members comprise over 160.000 professional authors in the text/book sector, working altogether in 31 languages.

FERA – FERA – Founded in 1980, the Federation of European Screen Directors gathers 47 organisations from 35 countries and speaks for approximately 20,000 European film and TV directors, representing their cultural, creative and economic interests at national and EU level. screendirectors.eu

FIM – The International Federation of Musicians is a global union federation bringing together trade unions representing musicians. https://www.fim-musicians.org/

FSE – The Federation of Screenwriters Europe (FSE) is a network of national and regional associations, guilds and unions of writers for the screen in Europe, created in June 2001. It comprises 26 organisations from 21 countries, representing more than 7,000 screenwriters in Europe. www.federationscreenwriters.eu

GESAC – Founded in 1990, the European Grouping of Societies of Authors and Composers (GESAC) represents 33 of the main collective management societies (authors’ societies) in the European Union, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland, administering the rights and remuneration of more than 1 million authors, composers and writers in a variety of sectors (music, audiovisual, literary and visual and graphic arts) and music publishers. More information www.authorsocieties.eu

IFRRO – IFRRO is the international network of collective management organisations (CMO) and authors’ and publishers’ associations in the text and image spheres, with 156 members in more than 85 countries.

SAA – The Society of Audiovisual Authors is the association of European collective management organisations representing audiovisual authors. Its 33 members in 25 countries manage rights of over 140,000 film, television and multimedia European screenwriters and directors. More information www.saa-authors.eu and follow us on @saabrussels #WeLoveAuthors

UNI Global Union – Media Entertainment & Arts (UNI MEI) – represents 170 national unions & guilds affiliating more than 375,000 creators, technicians and other workers in the media, entertainment and arts worldwide. More information at www.uniglobalunion.org/mei

 

[1] When looking at the worldwide market, top ten vendors of devices are again completely non-European companies. Only Nokia is considered as being in the 10th place according to some statistics and even for that the manufacturing take place in Taipei through a Taiwanese company who bought the right of manufacturing the Nokia devices from Microsoft for the sale and distribution of such devices by HMD Global, a Finnish company that is exclusive licensee of the Nokia brand for mobile phones.

 

Download PDF version of the statement here.

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Eugenia Arsenis
Dr. Eugenia Arsenis, Director – Dramaturg, is the delegate of the Greek Directors’ Guild at the Federation of European Screen Directors since 2016. She has collaborated with international cultural organizations, Royal Albert Hall – BBC Proms, National Greek Television, San Francisco Opera Center, Greek National Opera etc. As a writer, her play, “Women of Passion, Women of Greece”, travelled the past few years from Australia to India and, it has been recently adapted for film.
She has directed documentaries and, she recently directed, adapted and co-produced a film adaptation of the first American play written on the Greek War of Independence. Speaker at international conferences. Lecturer at a numerous Universities and Conservatories around the world. Designer of academic programmes. She was Coordinator and Dramaturg of the Experimental Stage of the Greek National Opera and Dramaturg of the New York Center for the Contemporary Opera. She was the President of the Hellenic Center of the International Theatre Institute, Board Member of the Greek Film Center, Board Member of the National Theatre of Northern Greece and Registrar of Public Relations of the Hellenic Theatre Studies Association.
She is a Member of the Cultural Committee of the Hellenic–American Chamber of Commerce and, the Creative Director of the international forum Artivism Drives Democracy. Her education includes Dramaturgy and Directing at Royal Holloway University of London, Opera Directing at Boston University, Philosophy at University College London, Film Directing and Screenwriting at the New York Film Academy, Music Studies and, she holds a Doctorate in Philosophical Aesthetics from the University of London. Holder of numerous international scholarships among them, Fulbright Scholarship for Artists and Art Scholars.

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Martijn Winkler

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Dutch Directors Guild, The Netherlands

Martijn Winkler (1978) is a writer, director and digital creative, working at the intersection of online, cross media and linear audiovisual storytelling since 2003. International and award winning productions (including two Rose d’Ors, an Emmy, a Webby, and an International Format Award at MIPCOM), often with an innovative and/or online component. His latest series Heat, a climate change thriller, was the most awarded short form drama series of 2021.
Martijn is former chairman and current board member of the Dutch Directors Guild, member of EFA and on the Advisory Board of the VU University Amsterdam, department of Arts and Cultural Sciences. He is also co-founder and creative director of production company VERTOV and head of social media and strategy at its sister company, Coebergh Communications & PR in Amsterdam.

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After university Bill worked for two years on the Fulmar Alpha oil-rig in the North Sea whilst weaning himself off writing dialogue-driven TV dramas like Nailed and lurching towards telling stories with pictures. Creatures of Light, his graduation film from the National Film and Television School won the Chaplin Award for Best First Feature at the Edinburgh Film Festival.
In a TV directing career spanning 30 years, workplace dramas include Mr Selfridge, The Mill and BAFTA-nominated Dockers (the story of their strike dramatised by a writers group of sacked Liverpool dockers, executive produced by their union for Channel 4); historical epics include Daniel Craig in Sword of Honour and Alex Kingston in Boudica (co- produced by MediaPro Studios and shot in Romania in 2002); detective dramas include the pilot of Lewis and writing and directing RTS and Prix Italia-nominated Guardians.
In stark contrast to his work on Spooks and Dr Who, Abrams Press have just published Bill’s first work of prose The Idle Beekeeper, a book about empathy (and raising bees).

 

 

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Marco Bellocchio

Marco Bellochio began studying philosophy in Milan but then decided to enter film school. His first film Fists in the Pocket (1965) was funded by family members and shot on family property. He made a big impact on radical Italian cinema in the mid-sixties. In 1968 he joined the Communist Union, and began to make politically militant cinema such as China is Near (1967). In 1991 he won the Silver Bear at the Berlinale for his film The Conviction. The Wedding Director (2006) and Vincere (2009) were both screened at the Cannes Film Festival, the latter in the main competition. Bellochio was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 2011 Venice Film Festival.

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Isabel Coixet

Isabel Coixet started making films when they gave her an 8mm camera as a gift for her first communion. After a BA degree in History by the University of Barcelona, she worked in advertising and spot writing. She won several accolades for her spots and finally founded her own production company in 2000, Miss Wasabi Films.

In 1988, Coixet made her debut as a screenwriter and helmer in “Demasiado viejo para morir joven”, which earned her the nomination for Best New Director in the Goya Awards.

International success came in 2003 with the intimate drama “My life without me”, a film based on a short story by Nancy Kincaid where Sarah Polley plays Ann, a young mother who decides to hide to her family that she has a terminal cancer. This Spanish-Canadian coproduction was highly praised at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Coixet has also made outstanding documentaries such as “Invisibles”, a selection of Panorama for the 2007 Berlin Film Festival, on Médicos sin fronteras or “Journey to the Heart of Torture”, filmed in Sarajevo during the Balkan War and awarded in October 2003 in the Human Rights Film Festival.

Isabel also directs Spain in a day, a collective film that shows how was a day in the life of our country, specifically on October 24, 2015, through images recorded by anonymous people through their tablets, phones or cameras. Based on Ridley Scott’s idea, “Life in a Day”, and with music by Alberto Iglesias, it premiered at the 2016 San Sebastian International Film Festival.

From Miss Wasabi Films, Coixet decides to support the production of projects by new women directors to favor the visibility of works directed by women in the world of cinema. A documentary and a short film have been produced within this initiative, as well as a fiction feature film and another short film in development.

Her first series, “Foodie Love”, explores the most essential of human relationships through the encounters of a couple and the delicacy and diversity of the food. It premiered on HBO in December 2019.

“Nieva en Benidorm” is her latest feature film. Produced by El Deseo and filmed in Benidorm during the first months of 2020, the film stars Timothy Spall, Sarita Choudhury, Carmen Machi, Anna Torrent and Pedro Casablanc. It is currently in the post-production phase.

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Heddy Honigmann

Heddy Honigmann has lived and worked in the Netherlands since 1978. Since then she has made a film nearly every year, both documentaries and feature films. Music often plays a major role in her films, from The Underground Orchestra (1997, about musicians in the Paris metro) to Crazy (1999, in which Dutch Blue Helmets talk about their favorite music during peace missions) and Around the World in 50 Concerts (about the Concertgebouw Orchestra, opening film of IDFA in 2014). Honigmann was guest of honor at IDFA in 2014, with a Masterclass, retrospective and Top 10 of her favorite documentaries. In 2015 she became a member of the Academy of Arts at the KNAW and in 2016 she received the Oeuvre Award from the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds. Her long documentaries Crazy and Forever received Golden Calves (the Dutch equivalent of the Academy Awards). Crazy also won IDFA’s Audience Award.

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Michaël R. Roskam

Michaël R. Roskam attended St. Lucas Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels, where he studied painting and contemporary art, and the Binger Film Institute in Amsterdam where he graduated in 2005 with a master’s degree in script writing. After several jobs as a journalist for Flemish newspaper De Morgen and a copywriter, he directed his first short film entitled Haun in 2002. This was followed by Carlo (2004), another short film which won the Audience Award at Leuven International Short Film Festival. In 2005, he made The One Thing To Do and, in 2007, Today is Friday, based on an Ernest Hemingway short story, that was filmed in Los Angeles. Roskam made his feature film debut with Bullhead  (prod. Savage Film) which was released in 2011. In 2012 the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. He was named by Variety one of the “10 directors to watch”. For Bullhead he received the Magritte Award for Best Screenplay and the André Cavens Award for Best Film by the Belgian Film Critics Association (UCC), among over 35 other international awards. In June 2012, Roskam was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Bullhead became a major critical and commercial success, while launching the careers of actor Matthias Schoenaerts and DOP Nicolas Karakatsanis, who have both become Roskam’s close collaborators. In 2014 The Drop (prod. Chernin Entertainment), Roskam’s first US-based film, was released worldwide through Fox Searchlight, featuring Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, the late James Gandolfini and Matthias Schoenaerts. In 2015 he directed the first two episodes of Berlin Station, a television series produced by Anonymous Content. His next European feature film, Le Fidèle (prod. Savage Film & Stone Angels), featuring Matthias Schoenaerts and Adèle Exarchopoulos, will start shooting in Spring 2016.

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Charles Sturridge

Charles Sturridge’s work includes the multi award winning adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s ‘Brideshead Revisited’ with Jeremy Irons and Laurence Olivier, ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ with Ted Danson, Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif. In 2000 he wrote and directed ‘Longitude’ (C4) with Michael Gambon and Jeremy Irons and in 2002 ‘Shackleton’ with Ken Branagh   both winning Best Drama Serial BAFTA’s. In 2009 he directed ’The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency’ and the ‘The Road To Coronations Street’ which won the RTS and BAFTA awards for Best Single Drama. In 2012 he wrote and directed Daphne Du Maurier’s ‘The Scapegoat with Matthew Rhys and in 2013/14 he directed episodes of ‘Dates’ and “Da Vinci’s Demons’. His most recent production was ‘Churchill’s Secret’ starring Michael Gambon, Lindsay Duncan and Romola Garai. His films include: Runners, A Handful of Dust, Where Angels Fear to Tread, Aria, Lassie and the BAFTA winning Fairytale, A True Story.

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István Szabó

István Szabó was the President of FERA from 2008 to 2012. István Szabó was born in Budapest, in 1938. He was an assistant film director and later a film director of MAFILM Hungarian Film Studios until the winding-up of the company. His films have won several international film awards such as the nominations of the American Film Academy for four times for the films : ‘Confidence’, ‘Mephisto’, ‘Colonel Redl’, and ‘Hanussen’, and the Academy has nominated his film ‘Being Julia’ for best female artist. His films have been nominated twice for the Golden Globe award (Colonel Redl, Sunshine). ‘Mephisto’ has won the Academy award and ‘Colonel Redl’ has won the British Academy Award. ‘Mephisto’ has won the David di Donatello Award as well; ‘Sunshine’ has won the Canadian Grand Prize. The scripts of ‘Sweet Emma’, ‘Dear Böbe’ and ‘Sunshine’ won the prizes of European Film Academy for best screenplay. ‘The Day of Daydreaming’ and ’25 Fireman’s Street’ have won the prizes of Locarno Film Festival; ‘Father’ has won the Grand Prix of Moscow Film Festival; ‘Confidence’ and ‘Sweet Emma’, ‘Dear Böbe’ have won the prizes of Berlin Film Festival for best director; ‘Mephisto’ and ‘Colonel Redl’ have won the prizes at the Cannes Film Festival. From the enlisted films above many of them have won the prizes of Hungarian Film Critics and the prizes of Hungarian Film Week.

The Civil Society of Multimedia Authors (SCAM)

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Israel Directors Guild

info@directorsguild.org.il

http://directorsguild.org.il/english/

Society For The Protection Of Audio-Visual Authors’ And Producers’ Rights (FILMJUS)

fj@filmjus.hu

www.filmjus.hu

Directors UK

info@directors.uk.com

www.directors.uk.com

Swiss Filmmakers Association (ARF/FDS)

info@arf-fds.ch

www.arf-fds.ch

Directors Guild of Slovenia (DSR)

info@dsr.si

www.dsr.si

Serbian Film Directors Association (AFRS)

darkolun@gmail.com

Polish Filmmakers Association (SFP)

biuro@sfp.org.pl

www.sfp.org.pl

Macedonian Film Professional’s Association

contact@dfrm.org.mk

www.dfrm.org.mk

Dutch Directors Guild (DDG)

info@directorsguild.nl

www.directorsguild.nl

Producers and Directors of Montenegro

office@ufpr.me

www.afpd.me

Luxembourgish Association of Filmmakers and Scriptwriters (LARS)

www.lars.lu

Lithuanian Filmmakers Union (SKL)

lks@kinosajunga.lt

www.kinosajunga.lt

Latvian Filmmakers Union (LFU/LKS)

info@kinosavieniba.lv

www.kinosavieniba.lv

Guild of Icelandic Film Directors (SKL)

skl-filmdirectors@gmail.com

www.skl-filmdirectors.net

Association of Hungarian Film Directors (AHD)

Association of Finnish Film Directors (SELO ry)

info@selo.fi

www.selo.fi

Estonian Filmmakers Union

kinoliit@kinoliit.ee

www.kinoliit.ee

Danish Film Directors

mail@filmdir.dk

www.filmdir.dk

Association of Czech Directors and Screenwriters (ARAS)

info@aras.cz

www.aras.cz

Directors Guild of Cyprus

directorsguildcy@gmail.com.cy

www.cyprusdirectors.com

Croatian Film Directors Guild (DHFR)

dhfr@dhfr.hr

www.dhfr.hr

Union of Bulgarian Film Makers (UBFM)

sbfd@sbfd-bg.com

www.filmmakersbg.org/ubfm-eng.htm

Directors Guild of Bosnia and Herzegovina

urirubih@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/urirubih/

Film Director Guild of Azerbaijan (AZDG)

info@audiovisual.az

www.audiovisual.az