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LEGISLATION Europe

European authors ask for proportionate remuneration to be enshrined in the Copyright Directive

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- 95 European filmmakers have signed a petition calling on the Digital Single Market laws to effectively deliver on their financial needs

European authors ask for proportionate remuneration to be enshrined in the Copyright Directive
Directors Marco Bellocchio, Agnieszka Holland and Cristian Mungiu

As the trilogue negotiations on the proposed Directive on Copyright in the European Union's Digital Single Market are drawing to a conclusion, European authors are making the most of their last opportunity to effectively ensure benefit from the economic success of their works. As announced by the Society of Audiovisual Authors (SAA), 95 European filmmakers have signed a petition asking for a principle of proportionate remuneration to be enshrined in the Copyright Directive.

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The signatories fully support Article -14, which ensures they are to be fairly remunerated for the success of their works by establishing a fundamental principle of fair and proportionate remuneration for authors and performers in Europe. However, they have expressed their concern that it will have no positive effect in practice if the following elements are missing: an explicit reference to "proportionate" remuneration, since it is the only way for them to receive a fair reward for the success of their work by receiving a proper share of the revenues our works generate, a clear reference to the different collective mechanisms currently in place in various Member States in Art -14, i.e. collective bargaining agreements, collective management of rights and statutory remuneration mechanisms, and the need to make clear that lump-sums, while technically possible, should be the exception, given that the idea of a one-off payment contradicts the idea of proportionate remuneration and the prospect of claiming additional payment under Article 15.

Authors have expressed that as global distribution players are emerging in the EU audiovisual market, they are becoming painfully aware of the contrast of their situation with that of our US screenwriters and directors' colleagues, who are compensated for the distribution of their work worldwide. For this unlevel playing field, both within the Digital Single Market and worldwide, to come to an end, authors are calling on public support to strengthen the creative community so that they can keep on developing new creative visions at the heart of our flourishing creative industries, to grow Europe's cultural diversity in the digital era.

Signatories include well-known filmmakers such as Spain's Alejandro Amenábar, Icíar Bollaín and Isabel Coixet, Italy's Marco Bellocchio, France's Stéphane BrizéCosta-Gavras and Bertrand Tavernier, Belgium's Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne and Jaco Van Dormael, Poland's Agnieszka Holland and Pawel Pawlikowski, Portugal's Miguel Gomes, Romania's Cristian Mungiu, Germany's Volker Schlöndorff and Bosnia-Herzegovina's Danis Tanović. Read the complete list here.

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