"I want journalists, publishers and authors to be paid fairly for their work, whether it is made in studios or living rooms, whether it is disseminated offline or online, whether it is published via a copying machine or hyperlinked on the web." With these words, the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, put on the table the updating of copyright law during his State of the Union speech on Wednesday. For some time Brussels has been pushing the idea of the Digital Single Market. Apart from proposals like eliminating roaming charges or online geoblocking, for the European Commission, the digital single market would reform the concept of online copyright.
Estimates from Brussels say that the digital single market would generate 415,000 million euros a year and hundreds of thousands of new jobs. For the moment, the proposals put forward on Wednesday focus on three areas: facilitating user access to digital content in all member states, establishing copyright exceptions to facilitate access to content for researchers and educators and the inclusion of people with disabilities, and providing news creators and editors with a legal right that allows them to claim compensation from platforms and websites for sharing news content.
They are measures aimed at confronting the reality of European consumers who increasingly listen to music, watch films and TV series or play online. They want to introduce the measures despite the fact that operators already have difficulty offering these services across borders within the EU. At the same time, that education, research and cultural heritage are subject to restrictions or legal uncertainty is, for the European Commission, "a block to digital innovation". And this while news creators and editors reach new audiences with the huge sharing of content online at high speeds without them being able to negotiate a return that would allow them to maintain quality.
The measure that contemplates a type of "editor's right" has gained praise from the continent's main organisations representing press editors... and the opposite reaction from Google, which sees it as a direct attack. "We believe there is another way of doing things," the US giant said in a statement about what many interpret as a "Google tax".
The challenge
Such ambitious objectives will not be easy to achieve. "Harmonising everything takes development time," warns the director of Legaltis and expert in digital copyright, Vanesa Alarcón. Nevertheless, she agrees that "more uniformity in operating online and the availability of content on a European scale benefits us all." However, she does lament the fact that "the legislation is moving one way and the technology another."
More optimistic is the vice president of the European Commission, Andrus Ansip, who is in charge of the digital single market project. "This proposal will guarantee the availability of a larger amount of content, adapting the European rules on copyright to the new digital reality." The European head insists that "European creative content should not be inaccessible, but has to be protected."
Along the same lines, the European Commissioner for Digital Economy & Society, Günther H. Oettinger, is clear that "our creative industries will benefit from these reforms, which tackle the challenges posed by the digital age and offer European consumers a wider range of content." As for the industry, Oettinger is convinced that a new framework of copyright regulation is "stimulating and fair, compensating investment."
The first steps towards the digital single market
In moving towards the Digital Single Market, Vanesa Alarcón points to bringing an end to geoblocking as a priority. "It would be a significant step forward towards a European scenario in which the same content could be accessed wherever we are."
On the other hand, she sees another of the objectives set by Brussels as being much more complicated, which is bringing subscription prices for online content into line. "Unifying prices brings the risk of not encouraging competition between the different companies. It is quite a difficult objective," says Alarcón.
The Legaltis director emphasises that "having any sort of control over the online world is difficult, as is developing it. The digital canon and tools of this type have limited access to content for citizens."
In fact, she points out that the main problem is that "as citizens we do not see it as the same as buying a newspaper, when online it should be the same. Everyone thinks that everything online is free." Despite the great challenge it represents, Alarcón says "it is logical that editors and creators should have tools to make profits from their online products."
Estimates from Brussels say that the digital single market would generate 415,000 million euros a year and hundreds of thousands of new jobs. For the moment, the proposals put forward on Wednesday focus on three areas: facilitating user access to digital content in all member states, establishing copyright exceptions to facilitate access to content for researchers and educators and the inclusion of people with disabilities, and providing news creators and editors with a legal right that allows them to claim compensation from platforms and websites for sharing news content.
They are measures aimed at confronting the reality of European consumers who increasingly listen to music, watch films and TV series or play online. They want to introduce the measures despite the fact that operators already have difficulty offering these services across borders within the EU. At the same time, that education, research and cultural heritage are subject to restrictions or legal uncertainty is, for the European Commission, "a block to digital innovation". And this while news creators and editors reach new audiences with the huge sharing of content online at high speeds without them being able to negotiate a return that would allow them to maintain quality.
The measure that contemplates a type of "editor's right" has gained praise from the continent's main organisations representing press editors... and the opposite reaction from Google, which sees it as a direct attack. "We believe there is another way of doing things," the US giant said in a statement about what many interpret as a "Google tax".
The challenge
Such ambitious objectives will not be easy to achieve. "Harmonising everything takes development time," warns the director of Legaltis and expert in digital copyright, Vanesa Alarcón. Nevertheless, she agrees that "more uniformity in operating online and the availability of content on a European scale benefits us all." However, she does lament the fact that "the legislation is moving one way and the technology another."
More optimistic is the vice president of the European Commission, Andrus Ansip, who is in charge of the digital single market project. "This proposal will guarantee the availability of a larger amount of content, adapting the European rules on copyright to the new digital reality." The European head insists that "European creative content should not be inaccessible, but has to be protected."
Along the same lines, the European Commissioner for Digital Economy & Society, Günther H. Oettinger, is clear that "our creative industries will benefit from these reforms, which tackle the challenges posed by the digital age and offer European consumers a wider range of content." As for the industry, Oettinger is convinced that a new framework of copyright regulation is "stimulating and fair, compensating investment."
The first steps towards the digital single market
In moving towards the Digital Single Market, Vanesa Alarcón points to bringing an end to geoblocking as a priority. "It would be a significant step forward towards a European scenario in which the same content could be accessed wherever we are."
On the other hand, she sees another of the objectives set by Brussels as being much more complicated, which is bringing subscription prices for online content into line. "Unifying prices brings the risk of not encouraging competition between the different companies. It is quite a difficult objective," says Alarcón.
The Legaltis director emphasises that "having any sort of control over the online world is difficult, as is developing it. The digital canon and tools of this type have limited access to content for citizens."
In fact, she points out that the main problem is that "as citizens we do not see it as the same as buying a newspaper, when online it should be the same. Everyone thinks that everything online is free." Despite the great challenge it represents, Alarcón says "it is logical that editors and creators should have tools to make profits from their online products."
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