Copyright reform is the right way to support the creative...
Copyright reform is the right way to support the creative sector in the digital age, European Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes said Monday at the Lisbon Council Intellectual Property and Innovation Summit in Brussels. But the debate on copyright “often…
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involves extreme positions, rigid views, and emotive arguments,” her written comments said. The issue is complex, so policymakers must be pragmatic, she said. The copyright directive was adopted in 2001, and the European Commission proposals it was based on go back to 1998. In that year, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook was 14, YouTube didn’t exist and most people listened to music on the radio, CDs or tape, she said. Since then, huge changes have happened to the content business, research activities and all other sectors, particularly that creation and distribution are in everyone’s hands, she said. Policymakers should help artists live from their art, stimulate creativity and expand consumer choice, Kroes said. Copyright can’t be considered in isolation, but from the standpoint of how it fits into the real world, she said. The current system doesn’t do that, because online licensing restrictions and the problem with orphan works make it impossible to buy music legally, particularly across borders, she said. There are other problems as well, which is why the EU must enact substantive copyright reform, she said. Every day governments fail to respond, “we are missing out,” she said. The consequences are initiatives Europe can’t seize, potentially high-flying ideas that get stuck on the runway, and “the glory and the benefits taken by American companies, not European,” Kroes said. The EC is assessing whether changes are needed to EU laws, and the World Intellectual Property Organization is looking at possible new copyright exceptions and limitations. During the assessment, “we should leave passion aside” and deal with the issues realistically, Kroes said.