Committee Reports 2015-2016
IFRRO Annual General Meeting 2016 2 November 2016 Amsterdam, Netherlands
IFRRO World Congress and Annual General Meeting 2016 Amsterdam, Netherlands
Committee Reports
CONTENT
1. IFRRO Regional Groups and Committees
1.1. European Group 1.2. Asia Pacific Committee 1.3. European Development Committee 1.4. Development Committee for Africa 1.5. Committee for Latin America and the Caribbean
2. IFRRO Technical Committees and Working Groups
2.1. Newspapers and Periodicals Working Group 2.2. Visual Working Group
3. IFRRO FORA
3.1. Equipment Levy Forum
1. Regional Groups and Committees
CHAIR’S REPORT of the EUROPEAN GROUP
Annual Report on activities July 2015 - June 2016 In conjunction with the Board Meeting – AMSTERDAM – 31 October 2016 Document prepared on: August 10th 2016 Item(s) for consideration by Update of consequences to expect from HP- and Vogel-cases in EU BOARD/IWC countries
1. EG meeting
The European Group met in Brussels in June 2016 and welcomed as key note speaker Mrs. Maria Martin-Prat, Head of the Copyright Unit at the European Commission. She mainly confirmed that the general approach of the Commission would consist of proposing harmonization of copyright when there would be a cross-border effect, like f.i. in the case of usages in education and libraries. This has led the IFRRO Secretariat to focus in 2016 a.o. on an in-depth analysis of the concept of ‘illustration for teaching’ which has been implemented differently in the various member states. Globally, IFRRO is advocating a rather narrow definition of that concept, in conformity with its recent submission on the EC consultation in the framework of its current review of the EU Copyright regulations.
2. Review of copyright rules within the EU
Three key issues for IFRRO members within this review are exceptions in favour of education, libraries, and Text & Data Mining (TDM). Until the Commission’s proposal on the review of the EU Copyright rules is published (scheduled for 21 September), the Secretariat in conjunction with the EG Executive Committee will continue to have a main focus on the Commission, representatives of the country currently in presidency of the EU and selected MEP’s. Further, replies to the recent EC consultations regarding publisher’s neighbouring rights and the issue of the freedom of panorama have been drafted by the Secretariat in consultation with other international federations representing authors and publishers.
3. CJEU Reprobel-HP case and Vogel-case in Germany: latest developments
3.1 Belgium The Government has drafted a proposal of a new copyright law with a (national) ‘sui generis’ right for publishers. The scope of that new right will however not be as large as that of the authors and it is hence expected that (if nothing changes) the current 50/50 distribution between both groups of rightholders would be jeopardy in Belgium. In addition, prints would be broadly excluded from the new remuneration scheme, as well as the current
B2B equipment levies, with an important drop of future revenues of Reprobel as a consequence. Finally, a very large ‘educational exception’ has been proposed, with among others a right for the educational institutions to copy most copyright works without having to care anymore about the limits of a ‘short fragment’. Reprobel and its member CMO’s are currently lobbying actively in order to try to modify in depth these worrisome legislative proposals. The new law is not expected to come into effect before 2017. : 21927/15402
3.2 Germany According to the German Federal Court, only authors and creators are, at the outset, considered as rightholders. Hence, publishers may not receive a share of the fair compensation paid for reprographic reproduction under the relevant exceptions in the German Copyright Act. VG Wort may thus only pay a share of the collected remunerations to publishers on the condition that individual authors have transferred their rights to a publisher. This has to be checked on a case-by-case basis (administrative nightmare). As the situation currently stands, substantial amounts may have to be reclaimed from publishers. During the summer, a new legislative proposal has been drafted and it is currently under review. It remains to be seen however whether that initiative will solve the open issues in a satisfactory manner.
4. Particular developments regarding copyright licensing in EU member states
-Ireland: amendments to the Irish copyright legislation have been proposed in order to introduce fair use and the broadening of exceptions and limitations regarding copyright.
-Greece: draft legislation to implement the EU CRM Directive has been presented to the Greek Parliament. It is not expected to include extension of devices to be levied like PC’s.f.i..
-Austria: apparently a law has been enacted in Austria which foresees the allowance of reprography rights to publishers, outside the scope of the directive 2001/29 (to be further investigated).
5. Elections of a new EG Executive Committee in Amsterdam
Anna Bleszynska-Drewicz (KOPIPOL), Sandra Chastanet (CFC) and Hege Døssland (Kopinor) were elected as the new European Group Nominating Committee to prepare for the election of the EG Executive Committee at the next EG meeting in Amsterdam.
6. Next meeting of the European Group
Is scheduled to take place on November 3rd 2016 in Amsterdam.
[END OF DOCUMENT]
Signature of the Chair: Date: 10/0//2016
: 21927/15402 CHAIR’S REPORT ASIA PACIFIC COMMITTEE
Report on activities Jan 2016 – Jun 2016 Board Meeting – AMSTERDAM – 1 OCTOBER 2016 Document prepared on: 10 September 2015 Item(s) for consideration by 1. New Chair to be appointed due to Caroline Morgan new role as IFRRO BOARD/IWC CEO 2. Australia: Resolution opposing Productivity Commission Inquiry into IP recommendations 3. Singapore: Resolution opposing proposed changes to Singaporean copyright law 4. Indonesia: YRCI has changed name due to domestic legislative requirements, and will need to reapply for IFRRO membership
• Committee Members Caroline Morgan (Chair) CA Viscopy Kartini Nurdin PRCI Sarah Tran CA Viscopy Dillys Yu HKRRLS Michael Healy CCC Paul Wee CLASS Madeleine Pow CLA Paula Browning CLNZ Hong Taek Chung KORRA Rohit Kumar IRRO Noma Yutaka JAC Zhang Hongbo CWWCS Takaya Inada JRRC Alvin Bonn FILCOLS Pham Duy Khuong VIETRRO
• Current Priorities Newly Established RROs • Indonesia • Philippines • Vietnam • India Awareness Raising & Network Building • Malaysia • Thailand
• Recent and Upcoming Activities The annual Asia Pacific Committee meeting was held in Sydney, 22-23 August 2016. All committee members, with the exception of representatives from FILCOLS, PRCI, and IRRO were able to attend.
Australian copyright review – APC Resolution opposing draft recommendations Copyright Agency has highlighted the potentially detrimental effects of recent legal developments in Australia, with the Draft Report of the Productivity Commission recommending sweeping changes to Australian copyright law, including the introduction of ‘fair use’. Delegates unanimously passed a Resolution opposing the draft findings of the Productivity Commission, the final text of which is below:
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IFRRO ASIA PACIFIC COMMITTEE RESOLUTION OPPOSING THE PRODUCTIVITY COMMISSIONS DRAFT RECOMMENDATIONS ON COPYRIGHT IN AUSTRALIA
The Asia Pacific Committee of the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations (IFRRO) brought together 21 representatives of 10 countries in the Asia Pacific region at its Annual Meeting 22-23 August 2016 in Sydney, Australia. Represented countries included: United States of America, United Kingdom, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, New Zealand, and Australia.
The Committee noted with concern the Productivity Commission’s Draft Recommendations on Copyright in Australia, and passed the following Resolution:
Copyright is vital to the global creative community and to its various audiences. In these days of globalisation and homogenisation of culture, a country's creative community is a rich wellspring which should be protected and nurtured.
The Asia Pacific Committee of IFRRO therefore urges the Australian Government to reject the findings of the Productivity Commission report in three respects:
• The recommendation to introduce the US doctrine of Fair Use should be rejected. Unlike the USA, Australia does not have the case law background for the introduction of fair use in the Australian legislation; its introduction is therefore likely to be costly and dependent on case laws in countries outside Australia
• The recommendation to abolish territorial copyright should be rejected. Australia would be out of step with other major English language countries who have territorial copyright in place. Abolishing this right would provide those countries with a commercial advantage in terms of selling Australian books to Australians.
• Finally, the suggestion that the term copyright should be between 15-25 years, while not a formal recommendation, represents a serious gulf in the Commissioners' understandings of the copyright industries and the role they play in shaping a country's culture over centuries.
The Productivity Commission will submit its final recommendations on Australia’s intellectual property arrangements to the Treasurer in late September, but it is unlikely that the Government’s views will be known until early 2017. Copyright Agency asks that the IFRRO Board consider including this issue for discussion at the forthcoming AGM, and asks that the full IFRRO community consider passing a resolution in support of creators’ rights.
Regional Reports
AUSTRALIA Licensing Update: In April 2016, Copyright Agency launched a new pay-per-use licensing solution, Rights Portal Journals. Developed in partnership with STM publishers Elsevier, Wiley, and Wolters Kluwer, RightsPortal Journals is an extension to RightsPortal, an online platform for purchasing, clearing and licensing the rights to reuse content from over 20 million STM journal articles from leading publishers. At this stage, RightsPortal Journals focuses on licensing needs in the ANZ and Asia Pacific region.
LearningField, Copyright Agency’s subscription based product that allows Year 7-12 students to use
: 21927/15402 multiple digital textbooks per subject in a searchable format has now been adopted in almost 50 schools in Australia, and we have re-signed major publishers for a further three years. In late 2015 we changed operating platforms to enhance functionality, and plans are underway to broaden the product offering, including interactive content in the near future.
We are in the process of renegotiating agreements with Australia’s major universities – no details have been confirmed at this stage.
On government licensing, the Commonwealth government has agreed to implement a pilot surveying program assessing copying levels in government departments – the pilot comprises of three different survey methodologies, including L24 (requiring participants to log materials used in the past 24 hours), N24 (participants required to log usage in real time over 24 hours) and N5 (participants required to log usage in real time over 5 days). This is the first time a survey has been implemented in the Commonwealth government, and should give us some valuable insight into current copying practices.
After a successful first year in the market, Copyright Agency reached the decision to withdraw from direct licensing in the Singapore commercial education market in order to focus on domestic priorities. Despite our withdrawal from this particular project, Copyright Agency values its continuing relationship with CLASS, and we continue to work with CLASS to ensure the continued success of the PEI licensing scheme.
In late 2015, Viscopy worked with partners to develop an ‘artists campaign for copyright’ focussing on getting copyright compliance ‘etched’ into the secondary and post-secondary arts syllabus, seeking to influence government policy on the ‘fair use’ debate, and working with customers and end users to better identify and address needs.
The ‘Voice of the Artist’ campaign was launched earlier this year with great success, and comprised of three elements – 1. Survey of visual artists to establish the value of copyright for visual artists, and discover how copyright infringement and digital technology affects their ability to earn income. 2. Publication including contributions from key artists and arts professionals with strong connections to copyright issues, including Oliver Watts and Christopher Hudson. 3. Half day event as part of VIVID Festival in Sydney, focusing on building further discussions around the outcomes of the survey and publication. More information on the campaign can be found here https://viscopy.net.au/voice-of- the-artist/
Legal Developments On 29 April 2016, the Productivity Commission released a draft report on intellectual property arrangements in Australia – the report recommended a number of significant changes to current copyright regulations, including the introduction of ‘fair use’. Copyright Agency is advocating against the proposed changes, and will continue to work with other creative content organisations, such as the ASA, APA, APRA AMCOS, NAVA and Screenrights to push for fair and reasonable changes to the Copyright Act.
The Productivity Commission will submit its final recommendations on Australia’s intellectual property arrangements to the Treasurer in late September, and we will continue our advocacy campaign while we await the government’s response to the final report.
After an extended 8 week campaign period, a double dissolution federal election was held in early July – it was a complicated process with the final outcome announced more than 4 weeks after the
: 21927/15402 vote. While other major parties came out in opposition to fair use during the election campaign, we note that the Liberal Party has not said anything publicly. On 4th August, it was announced that the incumbent Liberal/National Coalition party had won the election – while copyright issues remain within the purview of Minister for Communications and the Arts, Senator Mitch Fifield, it remains to be seen what implications the election result will have for our organisations.
Prior to the election, Minister for the Arts had confirmed that a Bill to simplify the statutory licences, among other things, would be introduced into the Parliament following the election. We expect that these changes will take place imminently.
NEW ZEALAND Licensing Update: With the university licence settled and e-reporting implementation underway, new licence negotiations are now able to take place with the balance of the NZ tertiary sector. The draft licence for the 21 institutions in this sector enables a shift to e-reporting and reframes the licence fee to align with the multiple levels of education (community courses through to post-gradute) that these institutions provide.
Legal Developments: The NZ government is undertaking a Creative Sector Study to look at how copyright and design laws are used by business to derive revenue. The TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership Trade Agreement) has consumed a lot of government and creative industry time since being finalised in February 2016. The government had valued the extension of copyright in NZ from the current 50 years (sound recordings) and Life+50 (authors) to 70 years and Life+70, at $NZ55m. The music and books industries have undertaken research that disproves these figures and have discovered a mathematical error in the government’s calculations. The actual cost of term extension is $NZ330k per annum and a 0.1% increase in production will turn this figure to a benefit to the country, not a cost.
CLNZ’s membership of WeCreate – the NZ creative sector alliance – is deriving wide benefit in government engagement activities. WeCreate now represents all 11 industries that constitute the creative sector and is the point of contact with government for the Creative Sector Study. WeCreate’s current work includes having a report prepared on the overall value of the NZ creative industries that, in addition to a valuation based on available data, also identifies where the gaps in available data are (eg. Export figures). Another project is a partnership with central and local government agencies for a Creative Sector Summit. This is planned as a one-day conference that brings government and industry together to chart a plan for economic growth from the sector.
SINGAPORE Licensing Update: In 2015, CLASS partnered Australia’s CA to license commercial schools in Singapore. About $36,000 were collected from the licensed private schools. But due to unforeseen circumstances, CA has withdrawn from the project to concentrate its domestic market. CLASS is also in the midst of a challenging licence renewal with the Ministry of Education which oversees all government primary, secondary schools and junior colleges. The MOE also has indirect governance over the tertiary institutions including polytechnics, universities and technical institutes. At the time of this report, licence renewal talks are also being had with the Nanyang Technological University and the Singapore Institute of Management (which runs the Open University) and other certified courses.
Legal Developments: Singapore’s Ministry of Law and the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) have announced a comprehensive copyright law review. A discussion paper was released in August which raises a
: 21927/15402 number of issues to be addressed by amendments in the copyright legislation. Many of the issues raised are deeply concerning to CLASS, and should be of significant concern to the broader IFRRO community. Primary amongst these are : • Proposal 10 – Proposed new exception for educational instruction, and alignment of free copying limits (from present 5% to 10% of uncompensated copying) • Proposal 6 – Exceptions that cannot be restricted by contracts
Other concerning issues include: • Expansion of Singapore’s version of the fair use defence, by removing the fifth factor unique to Singapore, namely commercial availability • Exceptions for libraries and archives, as well as for museums and galleries • Permissible circumvention of TPMs • an exception for text and data mining
Comments are invited until 24 October – IFRRO has agreed to make a submission opposing any broadening of exceptions for education that would serve to undermine licensing efforts in the region, the draft of which is attached to this report.
Copyright Agency and CLNZ have also undertaken to make submissions opposing the changes.
CLASS requests that the IFRRO Board consider including this issue for discussion at the forthcoming AGM, and asks that the full IFRRO community consider passing a resolution opposing the proposed changes to Singapore’s copyright laws. Draft text for the Resolution will be submitted to the IFRRO Board for consideration ahead of the AGM.
PHILIPPINES No update
HONG KONG Licensing Update: HKRRLS experienced great difficulties when negotiating with the Education Bureau for renewing the 2015-2018 licensing scheme for primary and secondary schools. The issues were partially resolved when a Legislative Councillor helped to arrange a meeting with the Under Secretary for Education. However, while an agreement was eventually reached, HKRRLS hopes to meet with the Education Bureau as soon as possible to establish a charge mechanism going forward.
Legal Developments: The Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2014 could not be put to a third reading at the Legislative Council because of the filibustering tactics that some councillors used to drag out the legislating process. The Administration subsequently pulled the Bill from its legislative programme, with no further deliberation on the Bill by the Legislative Council this year. Even so, the publishing industry will continue to work with other copyright industries to ensure better copyright protection, whilst close communication with the Administration will also be maintained so that hopefully a new amendment bill will be tabled at the Legislative Council as soon as possible.
KOREA KORRA continues its efforts to have a private copying levy established in Korea – a bill was proposed in 2012, but was ultimately rejected due to the powerful lobbying efforts of large technology corporations such as Samsung as well as the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. An Amendment was drafted and proposed just after the Korean general election in April 2016, and will be considered : 21927/15402 in the coming months.
KORRA has recently launched KORRA IMAGE, an image database designed to help right holders to effectively manage their copyrighted image works. The works of over 1,000 right holders are included in the database, which KORRA anticipates will primarily be used by staff writers of textbooks, publishing companies, educators, and other enterprises. More information can be found at www.korraimage.com
KORRA recently signed an MOU with National Association of Cognitive Science Industry, one of the most important institutions of field of Cognitive Science Industry in Korea. According to the MOU, KORRA will a conduct joint study of copyright law and cognitive science with NACSI, and exercise the right to license works in new technology sectors such as AR, VR, Hologram video etc.
JAPAN - JAC Licensing Update: JAC has launched a pay-per use service for digital uses. The prospective licensees are business organisations and document delivery services. The repertoire offered in the service includes domestic works and foreign works from several RROs which JAC has a bilateral agreement with.
JAC is also preparing to introduce a higher education licensing service to the market, which will be the first education license in Japan. JAC is working with a consortium of major Japanese universities to collect usage data and monitor trends.
JAC is also in discussion with Japan Copyright Office as to how JAC can contribute to CLASS’s efforts to collect fees from Japanese companies and schools residing in Singapore
Legal Developments: On March 8th 2016, a bill was submitted to the Diet to amend the Copyright Act following the signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement. Additionally, there is an ongoing discussion between rightsholders and users about copyright limitations for education.
JAPAN – JRRC Licensing Update: JRRC is currently exploring the possibility of digital licensing, but no firm details as yet.
Legal Developments: The question of orphan works is currently being discussed by the JCA sub committee. In order to find some concrete solutions JCA is planning to start demonstrative experiments soon, proposing to develop measures that will address the problems associated with the use of orphan works under the existing law.
Japan’s Government has stipulated a framework for the management of intellectual property through the Intellectual Property Strategic Program 2016, which is renewed annually. Collective management organizations play an important role in the proposed framework, and JRRC will play the role as a CMO in Japan. JRRC will report the results in detail in the next fiscal year.
VIETNAM Licensing Update: Licensing contracts signed:
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• digital use: 4, with total amount of VND 579,000,000 • photocopy: no
Preparation for licensing to universities: • Update and completion of the Project for licensing to Education Sector, • Seminars, co-organization with COV, at the big universities in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang: Hanoi Foreign Trade University, Hanoi Economy National University, Danang University of Technology, Thai Nguyen University, Can Tho University, Ho Chi Minh City University. • Assistance on copyrights to regional universities: Thai Nguyen University, Can Tho University.
Legal Developments: There have been no updates or developments with Vietnam’s intellectual property legislation in the past year, but possible amendments are anticipated in 2018.
INDONESIA Through Copyright Law No. 28, 2014 the Indonesian government decreed that by the end of 2015, the legal status all of collecting society should be changed to ‘Perkumpulan’ or Association.
Accordingly, YRCI reformed as Perkumpulan Reproduksi Cipta Indonesia (Indonesia Reproduction Rights Organization) in August 2016.
Perkumpulan Reproduksi Cipta Indonesia (PRCI) will be committed to copyright protection for both domestic and international creators, authors and/or copyright holders and publishers in the field of literacy.
CHINA Licensing Update: Statutory licensing – CWWCS entered into Remuneration Collection and Allocation Agreement for Works Used in Textbooks with Jiangsu Education Publishing House, and has now received remuneration from the publisher. CWWCS also communicated Measures for Remuneration Payment to Use of Text Works issued by NCAC and NDRC to newspaper/journal publishers in China, and signed Remuneration Collection and Allocation Agreement under the statutory licensing mechanism with a number of publishers to execute the national remuneration reference standard of CNY 100 per thousand Chinese characters for secondary use of works in journal/newspaper.
Complied works licensing – CWWCS entered into Agency Agreement for Compiled Works with over 40 publishers and provided licensing solutions to more than 70 compiled works in 2015, with over 10,000 authors benefited.
Digital rights collective management – a. Digital right partnership agreement: CWWCS, with permission of its members, granted their digital rights to China’s two large digital reading platform—iReader and SuperStar by following a payment mode of ‘advance plus split’. It is a breakthrough CWWCS has made in digital rights collective management. b. Partnership with Amazon.cn: CWWCS promoted works of its members through digital platform. By November 1, 2015, 38,406 e-books of its members had been sold by Amazon.
Performance right (Drama) – Commissioned by a Chinese drama performance company and assisted by Russian Authors’ Society, CWWCS helped gain the performance right license for performance of the classic Russian drama Office Romance (by Ryazanov) in China. The show went on tour in China and saw good box office returns.
: 21927/15402 Inter-government program – CWWCS continues to execute China-Russia Inter-Government Literature Translation and Publishing Program in 2015, with nearly 30 Chinese and Russian works being translated and published. It is the translation and publishing program of the same kind with the widest coverage, most published works and strongest influence, and has been well recognized by the two governments. In October, 2015, CWWCS was appointed as the executive entity of China-Belarus Inter-Government Literature Translation and Publishing Program by SAPPRFT.
Foreign rights agency – a. Russian titles (exclusive right in simplified Chinese): Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev: Volume 3: Statesman, 1953-1964 (by Sergei Khrushchev) Works of Russian children’s literature author Albert Likhanov b. Contemporary Chinese literature (exclusive right in Russian, Ukrainian or Albanian): The Wolf Totem (by Jiang Rong), Tears Are Gold (by He Jianming), etc. c. China-Russia Anti-Fascist Alliance (joint published by Chinese and Russian publishers)
Other rights agency – Philatelic items: 2 postage stamp books (copyright of text used in the books) Film: Picture book Reunion adapted to film
Legal Developments: In 2015, CWWCS worked with CPPCC members including Zhang Kangkang and Liao Ben (Vice Chairman of CWWCS), and submitted proposals including Proposal for Raising the Threshold of Personal Income Tax for Remuneration Income, Proposal for Releasing Remuneration Payment Standard for Literary Works Published Online, and Proposal for Enhancing Copyright Protection for Online Literary Works and Promoting Development of Digital and Cultural Creative Industry, which have had an effect on the public.
CWWCS also organized its members and legal experts to join discussion of amendment of China’s Copyright Law. It took advice from IFRRO and its member entities before submitting opinions and suggestions to NCAC and Legal Affairs Office of the State Council. It also shared with its members and authors about the progress of law amendment and views of experts on a regular basis. CWWCS was invited in 2015 to join IP workshop by Sino-US Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) and China-Europe IP Protection Project IP Key Phase III.
INDIA No update
Signature of the Chair: Date:
: 21927/15402 Appendix to Asia Pacific Comm. report
Mr. K SHANMUGAM Minister for Home Affairs and Minister of Rue Joseph II, 9-13 Law B-1000 Brussels Belgium Minister for Home Affairs New Phoenix Park PRESIDENT Rainer JUST 28 Irrawaddy Road Singapore 329560 CHIEF EXECUTIVE & SECRETARY GENERAL Olav STOKKMO
By advance mail and email [email protected]
Brussels, 20 September 2016
DRAFT AMENDMENTS TO THE SINGAPORE COPYRIGHT LEGISLATION
This submission is made on behalf of IFRRO - The International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations – which is the main international network of collective management organisations – the Reproduction Rights Organisations (RROs) – and authors’ and publishers’ associations in the text and image sector, with 145 member organisations in 80 countries worldwide. Our RRO member organisation in Singapore is CLASS.
IFRRO supports the submissions made by CLASS and the Singapore Publishers Association. In addition, we submit:
Educational Use and the Statutory Licence We strongly oppose the proposed broadening of the exception in the Singapore copyright legislation to allow the reproduction and making available of up to 10% of a published work without prior consent from or payment of remuneration to the author, publisher, or other rightholder. As appropriate legal usages are already enabled through the current regime, it is difficult to see that there is anything that can justify those changes. They will only lead to the collective licence currently administered by CLASS being made redundant, with substantial loss of income to authors and publishers as a consequence. Based on experience and Study Reports from other countries, such a development is likely to have a strong negative impact on the publishing sector in the country.
To our knowledge, no national legislation allows a general reproduction of up to 10% of a publication without obligation to remunerate the rightholders, or come even close to that limit. We also doubt that this would be compliant with the three-step test in the Berne and other international conventions and treaties, which Singapore is party to. To the extent that there is a legitimate need in Singapore to extend the limitation of what can be reproduced from a published work from the current 10-15%, this can be achieved, in consultation with the rightholders concerned and their representative organisations and CLASS, without broadening the already unprecedented extensive unremunerated copying allowed under the current law.
We submit that copying under an exception, without obligation to pay remuneration to rightholders, should only be allowed when the primary and secondary (collective licensing) market do not function
IFRRO AISBL • RPM Bruxelles N° D’ENTERPRISE 464622872 PHONE +32 2 234 62 60 FAX +32 2 234 62 69 EMAIL [email protected] ifrro.org
properly. Mechanisms to enable functioning primary and secondary market in Singapore already exist, including collective licensing through CLASS. They should be allowed to be carried forward.
In this respect we would like to draw the Ministry’s attention to the Pricewaterhouse Cooper (PwC) study on the impact on the publishing industry of changes in the Canadian copyright legislation, which led to users believing that the law allows for broader exceptions to the exclusive right of rightholders1. In addition to the legal uncertainty that the changes created, national production of copyright works have decreased; departments in publishing houses have been closed, especially for the production of textbooks; and personnel has been laid off2. The result is that significant harm has been done to the Canadian educational publishing sector, to the extent of jeopardizing its future.
Locally created content is vital to cultural independence, the economy and employment The creative industries and the copyright-based sectors are fundamental to the digital economy as well as pivotal in sustaining national culture and cultural identity. Cultural and scientific materials produced locally are essential for a nation’s ability to maintain sustainable cultural independency. It is also important in respect of enhanced readership and critical to the general transition into digital. For instance, at the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) 2015, it was noted that, although most of the world lives within reach of an internet signal, mobile users in developing countries are deterred from going online because of lack of good local content3. Authors and publishers, assisted also by RROs, are crucial to helping develop a market for copyright works in developing economies by the protection of and facilitation of access to works of local creators.
The proposed amendments to the Singapore Copyright Act, if adopted in their current wording, are likely to have a direct negative impact on locally-created content, insofar as they weaken the protection of copyright holders and allow enhanced use of copyright-protected works without prior authorisation, or remuneration of authors and publishers. No study has so far documented positive correlation between broad unremunerated exceptions and limitations and economic output, or the development of national cultures and cultural independency. Also the Lisbon Council Report on the effect of the introduction of fair use in Singapore has been severely rebutted by expertise4. On the other hand, there are uncontested reports, which show the positive impact on the production of cultural goods5, and on the economy and employment, as well as demonstrating positive correlation between the copyright sector and the size of the economy, innovation and competitiveness6.
1 http://www.accesscopyright.ca/media/bulletins/impacts-of-the-education-sector’s-interpretation-of-fair-dealing/; See also the IFRRO Report on Canada after the changes to the copyright legislation in 2012: http://ifrro.org/sites/default/files/canada_after_the_changes_to_the_copyright_legislation_in_2012.pdf 2In addition to Reports under footnote 1, see also http://www.accesscopyright.ca/media/94983/access_copyright_report.pdf 3 http://www.ip-watch.org/2015/05/28/lack-of-locally-relevant-online-content-deters-mobile-users-in-developing- countries-wsis-panel-says/ 4 See Report from the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal and Economic Public Policy Studies (Washington D.C) http://hughstephensblog.net/2016/03/31/the-costs-and-benefits-of-copyright-getting-the-facts-straight/ 5 See for instance sudy carried out at Stanford University (USA): http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2505776 6 More than 40 countries have finalised studies on the economic contribution of the copyright-based sectors to economy and employment using a methodology developed for the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO. (http://www.wipo.int/export/sites/www/copyright/en/performance/pdf/economic_contribution_analysis_2012.pdf). The WIPO Report shows that the copyright sector is among the most important contributor to a nation’s economy and employment, and that “There is a significant and positive relation between the contribution of copyright industries to GDP and the GDP per Capita”; “…a strong and positive relationship between the contribution of copyright industries to GDP and the Global Competitiveness Index.”; “Contribution to copyright industries to GDP exhibits strong and positive relationship with the Index of Economic Freedom” as well as with the freedom from corruption index; and “…a strong positive relationship between 2
The creation and publishing of new quality works nationally requires that the creator and the publisher are protected from infringement and rewarded for their efforts. Changes to existing copyright rules should take account of this and ensure an appropriate equilibrium between the rights of authors and publishers, and user needs. We are not convinced that the proposed amendments to the law observe this the way they currently read.
The importance to creators and publishers of income from the secondary market Income from the secondary market through collective licensing agreements offered by RROs, such as CLASS, is of major importance to the rightholders. According to a survey made by PwC in the UK, almost 25% of the authors derived more than 60% of their income from secondary licensing.7 For publishers, the same PwC study revealed that loss of income from secondary uses, resulting, for instance, from the broadening of exceptions and limitations, would impact severely on the publishing houses’ profit, potentially leading to job cuts and reduction of investments in new works and innovation8. The incentive to invest in new content development depends on the secondary income, which represents an average of 12% of their earnings, equating to around 19% of their investment in new works9. This represents a significant proportion of the funds publishers in the UK use to invest in content development.
In Singapore, CLASS offers collective licences, under a statutory licence, to facilitate certain legitimate legal access to published works. There is thus no need to broaden the unremunerated exception in the Singapore copyright legislation to allow more ‘free use’, without remuneration to authors and publishers. Legitimate user access is already provided, and the consequences on the Singapore publishing sector and society of reducing, or outright removing, the remuneration to authors and publishers for usages, which are currently contributing to authors making a living and to publishers investing in the dissemination of literary and scientific works, has, to our knowledge, not been analysed.
We therefore ask that the proposed changes to the statutory licensing regime be withdrawn. To the extent that more exceptions for education are introduced, we submit that such exceptions should only apply to the extent that a licence from the publisher or a copyright collective management organisation like CLASS is not available, or with an obligation to remunerate authors and publishers.
Yours sincerely,
Olav Stokkmo Chief Executive Officer and Secretary General
copyright industries’ contribution to the economy and innovation”. The economic contribution of the creative sectors is significant at any stage of development, and is likely to grow as the national economy develops in the knowledge era. 7 http://www.pwc.co.uk/en_UK/uk/assets/pdf/an-economic-analysis-of-education-exceptions-in-copyright.pdf 8 This is what has happened in Canada following an interpretation by educational institutions of the new legislation that more uses under exceptions are allowed 9 http://www.pwc.co.uk/en_UK/uk/assets/pdf/an-economic-analysis-of-education-exceptions-in-copyright.pdf 3
CHAIR’S REPORT EUROPEAN DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
Annual Report on activities July 2015 - June 2016 In conjunction with the Board Meeting – AMSTERDAM – 31 October 2016 Document prepared on: (Date) 19 September 2016 Item(s) for consideration by BOARD/IWC
Activities since last report: The regions which were prioritised by the Committee at the end of 2015 are the Balkans, Baltic States and the Caucasus region.
After a fact finding mission by the Secretariat in January 2016, the EDC met in Sofia, Bulgaria on 25th May 2016 and participated at a conference organised by Repro BG on Collective Management in the Text & Image Sector. Dimiter Gantchev, Creative Industries Director at WIPO participated in both the Committee Meeting and the Conference. The committee received updates on Romania, Hungary, Poland and Serbia as well as Bulgaria.
Upcoming Activities: Some members of the Committee will participate in an awareness raising conference in Riga, Lativa, organised by IFRRO member Latrepro on 21st September. Meetings will be organised with Latrepro and their mentor (Reprobel) and the Secretariat on creating a framework to move collective management forward and with the Chair to discuss implementation of WISE in Latvia.
The autumn committee meeting will take place in Serbia during the Belgrade book fair and will include an awareness raising seminar on 26th October.
Signature of the Chair: Date: 19/09/2016
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CHAIR’S REPORT (AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE)
Annual Report on activities July 2015 - June 2016 In conjunction with the Board Meeting – AMSTERDAM – 31 October 2016 Document prepared on: 22nd August, 2016 Item(s) for The situation at Kopiken-Kenya where the license to operate as an consideration by RRO has not yet been granted. Kopiken has a loan with IFRRO which BOARD/IWC was to be repaid by December, 2015.
Kopitan- where licensing of universities has halted as a result of a wrong interpretation of the free use exceptions within the Tanzanian law and also the legality of Kopitan to license universities as opposed to the Copyright Society of Tanzania which has the mandate to license copyright works.
The copyright terrain in South Africa regarding the new Copyright Bill which poses a threat to licensing.
The African region, which counts 13 RROs as members of IFRRO, of which two are provisional RRO members, has continued to manifest encouraging progress since our last year’s Annual Report.
COPYGHANA started collecting substantial revenue through the equipment levy for distribution to authors and publishers. There has also been progress with licensing of polytechnics. In April, 2016 CopyGhana successfully concluded agreements with authorities of the 10 polytechnics and 9 have already signed the agreements. However, negotiations with authorities of the universities have delayed because Vice Chancellors of 3 of the 4 key public universities retired in June, 2016. CopyGhana was therefore waiting for new Vice Chancellors to assume offices in August before engaging them in serious licensing. On the other hand, meetings were held with Executives of University Students Association of Ghana and Students Representative Council of some public universities in respect of licensing.
There was steady progress in licensing of all the 9 public and 24 private universities and colleges as well as 340 copy shops by COSOMA. In addition, COSOMA started licensing public and private secondary schools in the country. Most of the schools were complying and paying for the licenses. For the first time in June, 2016, COSOMA carried out a distribution of remuneration to its members. A total of MWK20million (EUR25,000) will be disbursed to its 10 rights holder member Associations of COSOMA at the COSOMA’s Annual General Meeting in Mid-October, 2016. Besides, a Copyright Bill which sought to replace the existing Copyright Act, 1989 was presented before Cabinet in March and June, 2016. The Bill would introduce levies for the reproduction of copyright works.
DALRO was kept busy working in the planned reform of the Copyright Law, with a Copyright Bill put forward by the Government that could have severe and negative impact on licensing if enacted. The Bill included provisions such as Government self-publishing. A public consultation was organized to gather comments from the stakeholders in the Bill which would was to be tabled in July, 2016.
Kopiken faced challenges to operate as an RRO. Their license was not renewed due to some challenges with operations. The CEO left the Organization and was now working for the Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO). A complete overhaul of the operations of Kopiken is required for the license to be renewed although Kopiken was planning to seek amendments to the current legislation in order to make licensing easier through introduction of a legal license.
Kopitan signed license agreements with 10 educational institutions under the legal license in the Tanzanian legislation. A number of sensitization meetings for the Ministry of Education, National Students Union of Tanzania and the Committee of Vice Chancellors through a joint Academic Affairs
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Committee aimed at facilitating licensing educational institutions were organized. However, Kopitan was experiencing challenges with a consortium of universities on the interpretation of the ‘free use’ provision existing in the Tanzanian legislation which has made it impossible for Kopitan to continue with licensing of universities. The other challenge was to do with the legality of Kopitan to license universities when the mandate to do so lies with Copyright Society of Tanzania (COSOTA). To this end, Kopitan received guidance from the IFRRO Secretariat with regards to the interpretation of the free use provision which was submitted to the office of the Attorney General for the way forward. Meanwhile, Kopitan has embarked on licensing copy shops. So far 23 copy shops were licensed.
In Uganda, URRO continued to intensify its enforcement activities as a strategy for licensing. In addition public universities were approached for licensing and meetings were held with the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE). Further, URRO signed an agreement with Kopinor with a view to strengthening URRO’s capacity to license and protect copyright. The main goal of the agreement is to make URRO a self-sustaining organization that brings value to the rights holders and helping users to comply with the copyright law. URRO has been participating in anti-piracy activities and is a member of the CMO Forum which has concluded a draft Memorandum of Understanding with the Uganda Revenue Authority to facilitate exchange of information, private copy collection and joint enforcement activities among others.
There was sound progress made at ZARRSO in Zambia with two licensing agreement already signed by October, 2015. In the same month, the Zambian Government ordered all copy shops to comply with copyright requirements. So far 42 copyshops have been licensed. A survey was instituted to assess the level of copying in educational institutions. Besides, a number of sensitization meetings were held involving COSOMA as a mentor and Mr Olav Stokkmo who also visited ZARSSO along the sidelines of the ARIPO Council of Ministers Meeting in November, 2015. ZARRSO introduced copyright licenses to private primary and secondary schools, and invoiced over 10 schools in Lusaka. ZARRSO engaged the Independent Schools Association of Zambia (ISAZ) and the Private Schools and Colleges Association of Zambia (PRISAC) for licensing. To this end, 7 private universities and colleges in Kitwe (a province outside Lusaka) were licensed. ZARRSO also engaged the Ministry of Education on licensing of public schools, so that licensing is centrally done for ease of collection of license fees and reduction of administration costs. ZARRSO received a donation of a motor vehicle from the Copyright Clearance Centre which will go a long way in facilitating licensing and there is hope that collection will increase in the 2016/2017 financial year.
At Zimcopy, Dr. Samuel Makore who has been the chairperson of Zimcopy replaced Mr Greenfield Chilongo as Zimcopy’s Executive Director. There has not been any noticeable progress in the licensing activities because the new team at Zimcopy has been working on restructuring of the Orgnaization.
Secretariat continued to work on an assistance Programme directed towards Repronig, also involving NORCODE, WIPO and the Nigerian Copyright Commission. In addition, the Secretariat also took part in the launching of the a new multipurpose CMO in Senegal and participated in a meeting of authors and publishers associations as well as relevant ministries on 19th January, 2016 and a seminar on RRO licensing in education on 20th January, 2016 in Dakar, Senegal.
The ADC held its annual meetings in Accra, Ghana in September, 2015 which followed with a training on TAG Compendium for RROs from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganga, Ghana and Nigeria. The Committee also met in Mexico City in November, 2016 during the IWC. Finally, the Committee held its annual meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in May, 2016. Also in attendance were the Copyright Society of Zanzibar (COSOZA) and Mauritius Rights Management Society (MRMS)
Signature of the Chair: Date: 22nd August, 2016
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CHAIR’S REPORT LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN COMMITTEE
Annual Report on activities July 2015 – June 2016 In conjunction with the Board Meeting – Geneva – 1 February 2016 Document prepared on: (Date) January 20, 2016
1. GENERAL INFORMATION
1.1 Committee meetings
The Committee held a meeting in Mexico D.F., Mexico, on November 2015 during the AGM and in San José de Costa Rica, Costa Rica, in May 2016. Next meeting will be in Amsterdam, in November 2016.
2. REVIEW OF THE SITUATION IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES
1. SITUATION IN COUNTRIES WITH OPERATIONAL RROs
CADRA - ARGENTINA
In the last year, CADRA has grown just as it has been doing since it was stablished. To this date, it has 390 licenses signed with copy-shops, 99 with universities, 20 with libraries, 14 with learning- centers or schools and 1 business company. CADRA highlights that has signed a digital agreement with the Federal Procurator. Likewise, an agreement has been signed between CADRA and the Council of the Buenos Aires Judiciary, and another with the Argentinian Odontologic Association. The total licenses to this date are 524. CADRA has increased its income in the amount of $ 964.285,2 (USD 63.190,38) from 2014 to 2015. CADRA has made a series of activities in relation with copyright being the most important the XIV seminar “Copyright in the Publisher World”. CADRA continues with its struggle against the illegal reproduction and piracy and has done Antipiracy legal presentations. It has contributed with great effort and determination with IFRRO to the formation of the Peruvian RRO. Members also grew in the last year, CADRA has12 new publishers, with a total of 225 and 146 new authors, with a total of 1238, which makes a total of 1463 members. CADRA has also started to work in the business sector. We will distribute the amount of $ 1.128.633, 58 (USD 73.960,25), that is a 12,97% in $ARS more than in 2015.
The economic situation in Argentina was very difficult since our country had an annual inflation of around 35% and the value of the dollar is higher every day.
Magdalena Iraizoz CADRA
B-COPY – BARBADOS
BCOPY continues its struggle to finalize a licensing agreement with the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies. In fact, after a period of extended waiting, our attorneys : 21927/15402 have sent drafts of the proposed licence to the UWI 's legal representatives. However, the major challenge revolves around the University's willingness and ability to pay. There have been reports in the local newspaper about Barbados Government's indebtedness to the UWI, a sum reported to be over two hundred million Barbados dollars. Government has been delinquent in its payments because numerous agencies have received cuts in the disbursements due to them from the annual subventions. However, considering that these negotiations started in 2008, there is also the issue of retroactive payment and the point at which that would be applicable, based on the nature of the protracted negotiations and an appreciation for the importance of balance in the process of agreement. Additionally, we have reactivated contact with the Ministry of Education, Technology and Innovation about licensing issues with the Secondary Schools and the Tertiary Education Institutions. We insist that the thrust towards empowering Cultural Industries, currently being articulated by Government and the Minister of Culture rings hollow in the face of demonstrated disrespect for intellectual property and rights owners in particular. We also take this opportunity to thank Olav and IFRRO for the level of support extended to BCOPY and the appreciation of the difficulties we face in this journey
P. Antonio Rudder. Chairman
BECLA - BELIZE
NO NEW INFORMATION WAS PRESENTED
ABDR - BRASIL
ABDR informed that the Ministry of Culture is now in charge of CMO in Brazil and that it means that a number of changes will take place. The main change has to do with the creation, in 2016, of a new entity that will be in charge of educational licensing, while ABDR will only be dealing with piracy matters. ABDR added that Pasta do Professor became a commercial licence and since then ABDR has lost a lot of revenues while Pasta do Professor is delivering very good profits. The new entity will be called ABRALC
SADEL – CHILE
During this year SADEL has subscribed new licenses with copy-shops. The number of members grew. Authors 242 Publishers 53 SADEL is offering to the universities a combined license, photocopies and digital, both of fragments Universities are unwilling to sign our licenses. According to them the law passed in 2010 includes an exception for education purposes that would make our licenses unnecessary. Some of those universities that do not sign our licenses will be sued this year. But it is difficult to do so because of the high cost.
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CDR - COLOMBIA
1. President In 2015 , Alvaro Carbajal, of ECOE ediiciones , was elected president of CDR. 2. Licenses CDR has 1392 licenses, 654 copycenters inside the universities, 649 copyshops, 39 libraries, 38 schools and 12 business. Of the 39 libraries 21 belong to the Banco de la República, they are in 21 different cities and the license was obtained because CDR sue them and won.
CDR is doing great efforts to obtain digital licenses with the universities, but only 2 has signed those licenses. In their efforts they have even visited the Colombian President.
3. DISTRIBUTION During 2015 the income was of US 111.167 while CDR expenses were of US 61.300. The distribution of 85.900 U$A was approved by the board. 4. Members Authors 124 Publishers 60 Total 184 5. Agreements CDR signed a special agreement with CEDRO in order to be part of Conlicencia and has new agreements with CCC for the academic content, both analogic and digital.
This year a new web is online and updated.
CDR did a study the second semester of 2015 that has been published by ODAI´s Bulletin. The Colombian Publishers Association appears as the ONG that did this study in order to not disturb the work we are doing with the digital licences in the universities. http://odai.org/Odai_reporta/Boletin_doce/noticias.html
Natalia Gomez
ECCLA- OECS Members States (Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia and St Vincent & The Grenadines)
NO NEW INFORMATION WAS PRESENTED
Jamaica (JAMCOPY)
LICENSING a. A total of 27 licences are in effect - 1 with the Government of Jamaica and 26 with universities and colleges. Six new licences are currently being negotiated and renewed efforts are being made to secure the schools’ licence. DISTRIBUTION A total of J$28.5M (US$244K) in royalties was distributed in the annual royalty distribution exercise. CARIBBEAN REGIONAL AGENDA JAMCOPY commissioned an Operational Plan to advance RRO activity in the Caribbean and the Plan was discussed at the IFRRO Caribbean meeting held in Port of Pain, Trinidad in May 24, 2016. The 5 Caribbean RROs agreed to collaborate on regional cross-border
: 21927/15402 licensing under a new brand CARROSA, with JAMCOPY leading the initiative. The objective is to enable the other RROs to become operational and sustainable and is deemed an imperative for the success of the region as a whole. Some of the funding for the project will come from JAMCOPY (to be recouped from the regional licensing) and IFRRO’s support will be sought to supplement the shortfall.
IFRRO WISE SOFTWARE With JAMCOPY taking on the responsibility for ECCLA and BECLA’s data management, the IFRRO subsidy toward the annual maintenance cost of the software was increased to 5000 Euros; we acknowledge IFRRO’s continuing commitment and tangible support to the Caribbean.
OTHER JAMCOPY’s inaugural and highly successful #theOnlineMind: Caribbean Digital Publishing Conference 2015 was held in Kingston November 2 – 5, 2015 under the theme “Crossing The Digital Divide”. 2015 also saw the launch of JAMCOPY’s Lignum Vitae Writing Awards, acknowledging excellence in new writing by Jamaican authors.
Carol Newman Submitted August 2016
CEMPRO – MEXICO
Licenses.- Mexico signed 83 new licenses. At the moment they have 349 licenses with copy centers (centers and establishments where paper goods are sold), 55 with universities and 8 with libraries, 20 digital licences have been signed this year. They are trying to negotiate with the UNAM and the University of Guadalajara. Members.- They have 139 partners, 95 are publishers and 44 are authors. Eleven publishers and 22 authors gave CEMPRO a digital mandate. Program actions against piracy.- CEMPRO maintains the program of actions against piracy and in the indicated period has secured 20.5 tons of illegal books (approximately 82,000 copies). They have signed a collaboration agreement with the company Rights Guardian. Search programs are already operating with on -line pirated books.
TTRRO - TRINIDAD & TOBAGO NO NEW INFORMATION WAS PRESENTED
2.2 SITUATION IN THE COUNTRIES WITH NO OPERATIONAL RROs
ACODERE – COSTA RICA
In August 2016 there was an Extraordinary Assembly to approve the new changes to the Statute that the government has required, and at last ACODERE has authorization to start its business. Lobby continues to take place to avoid that the law about copyright is voted once again. New members are being incorporated to Acodere, mainly authors. Acodere will organized the last Latin American Committee meeting in May 2016. Meetings with members of the ministry of justice and of education took place. Also meetings with authors and publishers.
This information was provided by María Fernanda Mendoza who is working with ACODERE.
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AEDRA – ECUADOR
NO NEW INFORMATION WAS PRESENTED
SAESEGC – EL SALVADOR
NO NEW INFORMATION WAS PRESENTED
SEA – PANAMA
In 2015 SEA took part of the Panamá Book Fair and the Copyright Seminar. SEA also attended IFRRO´s AGM and Congress in Mexico. With the help of Maria Fernanda Mendoza agreements were signed and type B licenses were obtained with CEDRO, CADRA, CDR, CEMPRO and SADEL. These will be effective as soon as SEA becomes a member of IFRRO. Negotiations with CCC are also on the way. Since January, SEA has now offices at the Art University GANEXA thanks to an agreement. The space is free. The president Rogelio Teran leaves the presidency for personal reasons and is replaced by Vicepresident writer Lucy Cristina Chau. SEA call for election and the Extraordinary Assembly elects writer Carlos Wynter Melo as president of the Executive Committee together with new members for this committee. Eduardo Benitez and Carlos Wynter took part as speakers at the WIPO meeting about the Marrakech Treaty that took place in Panama city. SEA is being recognized as a player in the copyright world in Panama. Meetings with the music sector to work together are on the way. The Director of the Copyright Office called them to give an opinion since they are working in some changes to the copyright law. SEA organized the program with the Director of the Copyright Office for the next Seminar that takes place in August. SEA also had presence at the last Writers congress and was able to promote between them the association
Carlos Wynter
PERU REPRO - PERU
After many problems and several rejections by INDECOPI, the Copyright Office of Peru, this project, in which IFRRO and CADRA have invested time and money, is abandoned. The good thing is that it is now in the hands of the Camara Peruana del Libro, whose president presented a project to create an RRO many years ago. So we think it is now in better hands and hope we will see results soon. Magdalena Iraizoz
Signature of the Chair: ANA CABANELLAS Date:25/8/2016
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2. Technical Committees and Working Groups
CHAIR’S REPORT Newspapers & Periodicals Working Group
Annual Report on activities July 2015 - June 2016 In conjunction with the Board Meeting – AMSTERDAM – 31 October 2016 Document prepared on: July 28th 2016 Item(s) for consideration by BOARD/IWC
The NPWG met twice during the period, the 12 November 2015 in Mexico and the 31st May 2016 in Brussels.
The working group focuses on the evolution of business models regarding the licensing of newspapers and periodicals in the business sector, media monitoring as well as education. A strong emphasis is given to digital issues, as digital uses are generating the growth in licensing revenues for this particular type of works.
The working group shares information on legislative evolutions which may have an impact on this area, at European and national level, as the last German and Spanish on the use of News on internet platforms. The group also monitors court cases at national and European level such as the ECJ court cases, “Meltwater case” and “Svensson case”, which had a significant impact on the licensing of web content.
The latest sessions were dedicated to the fast changing practices, evolution of the market and the new licensing models launched by members to address user’s need. All initiatives are of benefit to the whole members and are a real source of inspiration for RROs back to their market.
Among the topics were:
- International Media Monitoring licence proposed by CLA to address international market where there is no solution to licence through bilateral agreements. - Media Consultancy licences have been set up by the British RROs NLA and CLA, as well as the Australian, CAL, to address these specific needs and find a business model that match the use of press content for this purpose. - New services and diversification from licensing as the Impact Article Measurement launched by NLA, which strengthens their position with users. - Licensing of audiovisual content from TV and Radio, which are used in the same way as press content, by CFC through its media monitoring licence and its business licence. Experimental agreements have been signed for 2016.
CEDRO also reported on the case won against the pirate web portal Youkioske, and two new legal actions taken against two media monitoring organisations which didn’t want to take CEDRO’s licences and aren’t compliant to copyright.
Signature of the Chair: Sandra CHASTANET Date:28th July 2016
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CHAIR’S REPORT VISUAL MATERIAL WORKING GROUP
Annual Report on activities July 2015 - June 2016 In conjunction with the Board Meeting – AMSTERDAM – 31 October 2016 Document prepared on: September 2016. Item(s) for consideration by BOARD/IWC
Visual Material Working Group
The WG met twice during the FY. It is chartered to study and recommend solutions on matters involved in reprography and similar reproduction of still images contained within books, journals and newspapers and to determine strategies for co-operation and closer involvement of the visual creators in the field of reprography.
The WG has proceeded in the study of the value of identifiers for visual works. During the meeting in Mexico Jeff Sedlik gave a presentation on the developments in PLUS (Picture Licensing Universal System). In the WG 2016 autumn meeting there will be a demo of the project, so it will be clearer for the WG what it is about. It is still of great importance to find out how identifiers can be of practical use in identifying and licensing visual art and how they can affect visual artists in the long run.
The WG has discussed relevant current developments, like hyperlinking and exceptions/limitations, in jurisprudence and legislation in EU and WIPO. Also other relevant topics have been discussed, such as resale rights, Google, orphan works, etc. During the meeting in Brussels, Caroline Morgan gave a presentation on the project “the Voice of the artist” a research initiative by the Copyright Agency/Viscopy. The WG has been informed about developments in several countries. The exchange of this information will continue.
The WG has decided to update the art of Copying, which was first published by the WG in 2006. A clearer objective of the publication and current visual problems will be part of this update.
Signature of the Chair: Date:
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3. Fora
CHAIR’S REPORT EQUIPMENT LEVY FORUM
Annual Report on activities July 2015 - June 2016 In conjunction with the Board Meeting – AMSTERDAM – 31 October 2016 Document prepared on: (Date) Item(s) for - Follow-up of EC copyright reform initiative pertaining to publishers’ consideration by share and levies BOARD/IWC - Follow-up of political developments in, a.o., Germany and Belgium (via IFRRO Taskforce re: possible impact thereof on RRO activities)
Hewlett Packard Belgium (CJEU) / Vogel (German BGH): publishers’ share
ELF activities in the period July 2015 – June 2016 were focussed on the aftermath of the Hewlett Packard Belgium ruling of the CJEU (C-572/13) and of the Vogel ruling of the German Bundesgerichthof (BGH).
In its ruling of 12 November 2015 in Hewlett Packard Belgium, the CJEU ruled that publishers are not rightsholders in the sense of the Copyright Directive and therefore can suffer no harm on the basis thereof. Of particular importance are recitals 48 and 49 of the ruling. Recital 48 reflects the general opinion of the Court (and of the Advocate-general): it doesn’t preclude publishers’ remuneration on the basis of national law insofar as this remuneration doesn’t affect the fair compensation due to the rightsholders (i.e. the authors). In recital 49 the CJEU answers the specific preliminary question asked and phrased by the Court of Appeal of Brussels: if a national judge were to find that national legislation in a member state allocates part of the authors’ fair compensation to publishers, such a scheme can only comply with EU law under an obligation for publishers to make the authors benefit directly or indirectly from the publishers’ proceeds from the scheme.
Further, the CJEU has ruled on the modalities of levy schemes in the TI sector (reprography and private copying). The CJEU ruled that:
(1) There is an overlap between articles 5.2.a and b. of the Copyright Directive for reproductions on paper made by natural persons for their private not-for-profit use; as a consequence, any compensation scheme for these reproductions should be modulated (i.e. making a distinction between reproduction acts by natural persons for their private use and all other reproduction acts such as by companies, institutions, …); (2) Sheet music should be excluded from both the exceptions for reprography and private copying and from the compensation scheme on the basis thereof; the same goes for illegal reproductions from an illicit source (following earlier CJEU rulings); (3) A dual levy scheme, with both an equipment levy and a proportional operator fee, is acceptable in principle, under the following conditions/restrictions: - The equipment levy tariff should not exclusively be based on the reproduction capacity of the device (i.e. its maximum speed); - The operator levy/fee tariff should not take into account whether or not the end user has cooperated with the collection of the fee (there being no link with the harm suffered by rightsholders); - Member states should provide for a refund mechanism (or similar) in cases where an equipment levy based on potential harm is combined with an operator fee compensating actual harm, to avoid overcompensation of rightsholders.
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The HP case will now be further dealt with on the merits by the Court of Appeal of Brussels. The dates for the pleadings are 13, 14 and 20 October 2016.
In late Spring 2016 the Belgian federal Government tabled a draft bill re: reprography, in which publishers continue to receive a (yet to determine) share of the reprography scheme on the basis of a “sui generis” remuneration right under national law. However, it would seem that the equipment levy on B2B-reproduction devices may be scrapped altogether. Further, publishers would no longer benefit from the private copying scheme (i.e. the equipment levy on B2C-devices which may be continued) nor from the proposed “catch all” legal license for educational uses, covering both analogue and digital acts. A second reading of the draft bill at government level is scheduled for September 2016.
On 21 April 2016, the German Bundesgerichtshof ruled out an internal RRO distribution scheme allocating a forfeited (“Pauschal” in German) share of reprography collections to publishers, i.e. the current VG Wort distribution practice. VG Wort has had its Annual Meeting in June 2016, during which its members asked that it would remain an organisation for both authors and publishers and would continue to remunerate publishers. Extraordinary meetings will now be organised by VG Wort in order to decide how to deal with the remuneration distributed in the past, as well as with future distributions. VG Wort is hoping that a national solution will be found through legislation first followed by a better solution at EU level. At national level, the pending German draft legislation on contractual copyright law could offer an opportunity to deal with the publisher’s share of remuneration through it; a solution could be based on the transfer of rights.
Within IFRRO, a taskforce was set up with an aim of monitoring the legal and political evolutions in Germany and Belgium and their possible impact on RRO activities. IFRRO is of course also monitoring the EC copyright reform initiative since the latter may provide for a patch for the publisher share (by creating a neighbouring right for (all or some) publishers and/or leaving sufficient margin to member states to provide for national solutions). The last conference call of the TF was held on August 31, 2016.
Egeda (CJEU) – compensation from state budget
On 9 June 2016, the CJEU ruled that a national compensation scheme in the field of private copying, such as the Spanish one, providing for the compensation of rightsholders from the State budget, is acceptable in principle on the condition however that the scheme guarantees that the cost of the fair compensation is ultimately borne by the users of private copies. The CJEU found that the current Spanish compensation scheme doesn’t comply with EU law in this respect.
Austria: new legislation (equipment levies and publishers’ share)
In Austria, legislation was passed which (a) imposes a double cap on equipment levies and RRO collections in the field of reprography and private copying and (b) recently (as of June 2016), allows for authors and publishers to continue to benefit from the distribution regardless of the extent of the transfer of rights to the RRO. (In Hungary too, the publishers’ share was recently addressed by the national legislator.)
WIPO/IFRRO TI levy report (2015 update)
The 2015 update was published in February 2016.
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Technical taskforce on imports and re-exports
It was decided, at the ELF session in Mexico-city, that the activities of this taskforce (under the leadership of Sabine Richly from VG Wort) are discontinued for the time being.
[END OF REPORT]
Signature of the Chair: Kurt Van Damme Date: 22 August 2016
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