REVIEW OF THE EU COPYRIGHT RULES

The European Commission has organized a public consultation in which stakeholders may comment on the forthcoming review of copyright in the European Union. Below you will find a summary of  the contribution of VillaMusicRights.

Copyright is intended for those who carry out creative achievements and to give them control over their work and to reward them for it.  This is basically a good working system, also cross-border. The music industry however has made a caricature of it. In factual practice, record companies, music publishers, managers and collective rights organizations benefit from the creative achievements of others, and they are the ones facing problems and needing further measures.

The best way to improve the system is complete transparency. At VillaMusicRights composers can upload their own work, and they set the price and term of the licenses they grant. If a business user acquires a license, composers will be informed and paid. The EU should contact the Member States and agree with them that at a national level there will be good information on how creative people can manage their rights. Especially has to be made clear that collective management is not the only way.

Copyright must return to (music) makers. Copyright is a reward system for makers and not a punishment system for citizens, in which the concepts download ban and private copying levy are at the centre. Wouldn’t it be nice if in future policy innovation and encouraging innovative initiatives are at the centre? As long as it is not,  the old structures - at least for now - remain. This is undesirable, because this way creative people remain dependent of organizations that consider self-interest as the most important thing. 

In media, telecom, railways, energy, etc. is a far-reaching liberalization has been established, initiated at an European level. Usually with two sides: a "dismantling" of public providers and stimulating competition. In copyright there are organizations operating with the exclusion of others, authorized by Member States.  Liberalized markets such as media and telecommunications are based on the reverse. The European Union  should encourage competition in the market for copyright.