Conversations concerning the final drafting of the EU Copyright Directive (‘the Directive’) has spurred representatives from the creative industries to issue various statements. In their statements these groups urge the European Commission, European Parliament and EU Council to push ‘the Directive’ through. This is amid criticism from some relating to the draft article 13 of the Directive. The EU Copyright Directive is currently heading towards the trialogue stage (the final stage where the European Commission, European Parliament and the European Council make final amendments to the Directive).
Prior to last week, the music industry had seemed to take a uniform approach in campaigning for the Directive, in particular the safe harbour reforming article thirteen (it aims to increase liabilities for user-upload sites such as Youtube and Vimeo). However, in a surprising turn of events, the trading bodies representing the record labels and music publishers (IFPI, IMPALA, and ICMP), stated that they were unhappy with the direction the Directive (the draft directive published by the Romanian presidency of the European Council) had recently taken.
The particular issues lie with the new exemptions for internet platforms from liability that are included. Subsequently, the representatives of the record labels and music publishers have asked for the Directive to be abandoned, instead of it being unable to fulfil its original function.
Nevertheless, the above expressed criticism emboldened the groups speaking on behalf of artists and songwriters, to issue a statement confirming their continued support for the Directive. The UK’s Council of Music Makers stated that part of the reason why the labels and publishers had changed their position was because of the amendments to articles 14 and 16 (it increases the rights of artists and songwriters against their music industry partners).
IMPALA spoke on behalf of the indie label community (against the current state of the Directive), stating that it hoped a final version of the Directive would address the issues raised by the criticisms.
A statement received yesterday was signed by GESAC and CISAC (on behalf of the song right collecting societies), ESCA (which brings together songwriters and composers across Europe), FIM and IAO (global artists and musician groupings).
The statement confirmed the want for a more constructive approach to improve and adopt the EU Copyright Directive. However, it did acknowledge that a directive was needed to “…create a necessary level playing field for all creative sectors in European digital single market, whilst giving consumers better access to more content in a secure environment.” Thus, it seems as though the European Parliament, European Commission and European Council will have to really think of how to tunefully appease the masses.
