Digitisation and Online Exploitation of Broadcasters' Archives
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Digitisation and Online Exploitation of Broadcasters’ Archives The archives of many television broadcasters now contain materiel which includes more than half a century of contemporary, documentary and entertainment history and are of immense cultural and economic value. Digitisation has created an entirely new technical basis for making these assets available to a wide audience, and there are a whole range of projects aimed at opening up audiovisual archives (including those of broadcasters). Examples that might be mentioned are the BBC Creative Archive, the Dutch Filmotech initiative or the French Inamédiapro database. However, many projects to open up broadcasters’ archives and exploit them online generally run up against serious problems when it comes to clearing the rights for these archived works. These problems arise, firstly, due to a contractual practice that developed in the pre-digital era and to aspects of copyright law that do not really meet the needs of the digital age. Secondly, the very large number of works stored in archives constitutes a challenge that is not easily overcome. The aim of this IRIS Special publication is to discuss the subject of “Digitisation and online exploitation of broadcasters’ archives” from a number of different perspectives. The team of authors involved is accordingly made up of representatives of many different interests: copyright holders and those who look after their interests, television broadcasters, lawyers and copyright experts. Their contributions can be divided into four subject-areas: - The legal framework of digitisation - Rights clearance and dealing with orphan works - The online exploitation of public service broadcasters’ archives, including relevant Digitisation and competition aspects - Cross-border exploitation. This IRIS Special thus not only provides you with legal guidance but is at the same time a Online Exploitation field report written by specialists who are facing the challenge of opening up broadcasters’ archives to a wide audience. By working out existing problems that have hitherto not been satisfactorily resolved, both policy-makers and legislators are shown where immediate action is needed. of Broadcasters’ Archives Related IRIS-Publication IRIS Special This IRIS Special edition focuses on the rights and remuneration of creative forces other than Creativity Comes producers and composers, namely script writers, set designers, cameramen, sound designers, lighting designers, editors, choreographers, costume designers, make-up artists, actors, Digitisation and Online Exploitation of Broadcasters’ Archives Archives of Broadcasters’ and Online Digitisation Exploitation at a Price - The Role dubbing artists, dancers, musicians, vocal performers and others. of Collecting Societies It examines the mechanisms that enable these professional groups to share in the profits resulting from the exploitation of works to which they contributed. All the means by which audiovisual works may be exploited (e.g. cinema, television broadcasting, video/DVD, VoD and all other forms of online distribution) are considered. 148 pages, 95 EUR, ISBN 978-92-871-6591-6 Related IRIS-Publication IRIS plus Orphan works are numerous and the interest in using them is high. But how to use them Audiovisual Archives without running foul of existing copyright laws? Is this a question that could be solved by European Community legislation? Can we find solutions in national law? How do we strike the and the Inability balance between the interests of rightsholders and the interest of potential users and, in the to Clear Rights end, the general public? This IRIS plus gives you a lead. in Orphan Works The full text version can be downloaded free of charge: http://www.obs.coe.int/oea_publ/iris/iris_plus/iplus4_2007.pdf EUR 97,50 – ISBN 978-92-871-6997-6 IRIS Special: Digitisation and Online Exploitation of Broadcasters’ Archives European Audiovisual Observatory, Strasbourg 2010 ISBN: 978-92-871-6997-6 EUR 97,50 Director of the Publication: Wolfgang Closs, Executive Director of the European Audiovisual Observatory E-mail: [email protected] Editor and Coordinator: Dr. Susanne Nikoltchev, LL.M. (Florence/Italy, Ann Arbor/MI) Head of the Department for Legal Information E-mail: [email protected] With the editorial support of: Stef van Gompel & Christina Angelopoulos Institute for Information Law (IViR) Contributing Partner Institution: Institute for Information Law (IViR) Kloveniersburgwal 48 NL-1012 CX Amsterdam Tel.: +31 (0) 20 525 34 06 Fax: +31 (0) 20 525 30 33 E-mail: [email protected] www.ivir.nl Editorial Assistant: Michelle Ganter E-mail: [email protected] Marketing: Markus Booms E-mail: [email protected] Translation/Proof-reading: France Courrèges, Michael Finn, Sabina Gorini, Julie Mamou, Nadja Ohlig, Stefan Pooth, Erwin Rohwer, Nathalie Sturlèse, Anne-Lise Weidmann Typesetting/Print: Pointillés, Hoenheim (France) Publisher: European Audiovisual Observatory 76 Allée de la Robertsau F-67000 Strasbourg Tel.: +33 (0)3 90 21 60 00 Fax: +33 (0)3 90 21 60 19 E-mail: [email protected] www.obs.coe.int Please quote this publication as: Susanne Nikoltchev, Ed., IRIS Special: Digitisation and Online Exploitation of Broadcasters’ Archives (Strasbourg, European Audiovisual Observatory, 2010) © European Audiovisual Observatory, 2010. Opinions expressed in this publication are personal and do not necessarily represent the views of the Observatory, its members or the Council of Europe. Digitisation and Online Exploitation of Broadcasters’ Archives DIGITISATION AND ONLINE EXPLOITATION OF BROADCASTERS’ ARCHIVES 3 Digitisation and Online Exploitation of Broadcasters’ Archives Published by the European Audiovisual Observatory On 5 November 2010, Commissioner Neelie Kroes spoke – not for the first time – on the opportunities that digitisation of cultural works offer to artists, the general public, the question of cultural diversity and Europe as such.1 Forward looking, she pointed out that the variety of copyright laws could be a potential stumbling block for using these opportunities and announced that “Instead of a dysfunctional system based on a series of cultural Berlin walls,…” she wanted “…a return to sense.“ In her speech she also explained what, in her view, makes the system dysfunctional: “Take for instance copyright. For 200 years, it has proved a powerful way to remunerate our artists and to build our creative industries. But copyright is not an end in itself. Copyright exists to ensure that artists will continue to create. Yet we see more and more often that it is not respected. In some sectors, the levels of piracy demand that we ask ourselves what are we doing wrong. We must ensure that copyright serves as a building block, not a stumbling block. Look at the situation of those trying to digitise cultural works. Europeana, the online portal of libraries, museums and archives in Europe, is one key example. What a digital wonder this is: a single access point for cultural treasures that would otherwise be difficult to access, hidden or even forgotten. Will this 12 million-strong collection of books, pictures, maps, music pieces and videos stall because copyright gets in the way? I hope not. But when it comes to 20th century materials, even to digitise and publish orphan works and out-of-distribution works, we have a large problem indeed. Europeana could be condemned to be a niche player rather than a world leader if it cannot be granted licenses and share the full catalogue of written and audio-visual material held in our cultural institutions. […] 1) Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice-President, Speech/10/619 on “A digital world of opportunities” given on 5 November 2010 at the Forum d’Avignon - Les rencontres internationales de la culture, de l’économie et des medias, Reference: available at http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/10/619&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en Among others, she stated: “My goal, in promoting cultural diversity and content adapted to the digital age, is for European creativity to be even stronger. Europe has boundless cultural wealth to offer its citizens, and indeed to the world. Europe is and must remain a global cultural force.” © 2010, European Audiovisual Observatory, Strasbourg (France) 4 DIGITISATION AND ONLINE EXPLOITATION OF BROADCASTERS’ ARCHIVES Today our fragmented copyright system is ill-adapted to the real essence of art, which has no frontiers. Instead, that system has ended up giving a more prominent role to intermediaries than to artists. It irritates the public who often cannot access what artists want to offer and leaves a vacuum which is served by illegal content, depriving the artists of their well deserved remuneration.” In Europe, many broadcasters, especially those in the public service category, possess a wealth of cultural works in their archives, including self-/co-produced or commissioned audiovisual works. Many broadcasters are keen to digitise them in order to have them available for traditional – but now digitised - broadcasting services but also and increasingly so for their latest non-linear services. As the European Commissioner rightfully reminds us, digitisation projects can turn out to be costly and time consuming mainly because of the need to clear copyrights. This challenge might even render a whole undertaking impossible. Exactly because of this, is it very important to understand what aspects of the legal field of copyright make rights clearance so difficult and how these