“Licences For Europe” Stakeholder Dialogue Ends With Some Agreement, Some Criticism

Licences for Europe, a European Commission-launched stakeholder dialogue intended to make more copyright-protected content available online, ended today with some concrete proposals but also some criticism. The exercise – which focussed on cross-border access and portability of services, user-generated content and micro-licensing, audiovisual cultural heritage, and text and data mining – brought applause from book publishers and commercial broadcasters, but complaints from civil society groups and internet companies.

The most tangible results were a variety of industry initiatives, stakeholder commitments and roadmaps for further action in all four areas, the EC said.

The Federation of European Publishers (FEP) took part in the working group on cross-border access to “print” content, and said today that publishers, authors and booksellers agreed to a joint roadmap to boost cross-border access, interoperability and discoverability of e-books in Europe’s single market.

One key problem with e-books is that consumers often can’t transfer digital content to a different device, so they book sector is backing efforts such as the development of ePub, an open standard format for e-books with a wide range of interoperability and accessibility features, FEP said. The working group also looked at how to help readers discover, via an online platform, what e-books are available, in what languages and formats, and from which sellers, it said.

The working groups focussed on the need for content identification and interoperability of online licensing technology, said the European Publishers Council (EPC). The issue is that, while online content is in theory protected by copyright, in practice the technology up till now hasn’t been developed to allow rights and permission to be communicated online in a machine-readable way for all types of content in all formats, it said.

Work is underway to “upgrade” the digital network and resolve the problem of “digital orphans,” whose creators can’t be identified in the form of Web Content Declaration, tools being developed by the Linked Content Coalition, a global multimedia digital rights technology project initially launched by the EPC, it said.

There were also agreements between copyright owners and users, such as an accord between the audiovisual industry and film heritage institutions on common principles for digitisation of catalogued European films, the EC said. The agreements “open the door to potentially enjoy over one million hours of European films which are currently locked away in cans in basement archives,” said Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth Commission Androuila Vassiliou.

The audiovisual sector’s commitment to gradually increasing the cross-border portability of subscription-based audiovisual services “is another remarkable result,” said Vassiliou. That will make it easier for viewers travelling abroad to legally access movies and TV shows to which they are subscribed in their home countries, she said.

The Association of Commercial Television in Europe (ACT) today released a non-exhaustive list of new services launched by member companies since April “as further evidence that the current European copyright framework contains the necessary flexibility for new innovative digital services to be developed,” Director-General Ross Biggam said. ACT found the Licences for Europe process “valuable as a means of explaining the dynamics of the market without which we operate,” and for showing that a stable copyright regime is key to the high level of innovation that characterises the sector, he said.

Consensus Lacking on User-Generated Content, Data Mining

Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes said she followed the user generated content and text and data mining working groups with special interest. For commercial use, the “small-scale” licensing though simpler [information and communications technology]-based scheme could be an improvement, making it easier to obtain licences for music, she said. But “positions are diverging” on user generated content, she said. Users now interact with content in a way that’s creative and often instantaneous, and don’t expect to have to seek permission to upload their own videos, she said. It’s clear that the traditional approach, requiring proper licensing, doesn’t align with current Internet practice and behaviour, she said. The issues need further legislative work, she said.

The text and data mining working also didn’t reach consensus, either on the problems to be addressed or the results, the EC said. But the discussions offered useful insights into the issues at stake, it said.

In all, Licences for Europe resulted in 10 pledges to bring more content online, the EC said. In addition to those described above, the music industry said record producers will begin to offer new, pan-European licences enabling background music on websites, the EC said. Under another agreement, there will be a range of new licensing solutions to help users know what they can do with text and images and to seek permission through streamlined processes if needed, it said. That includes identification of rights holders, information to users about licensing and conditions, and easy pay-per-use systems, it said.

Another agreement set out a roadmap to help Web self-publishers get identifiers for their works or licenses for re-using existing content, the EC said. In addition, press publishers agreed to engage with readers to help them learn what they can do with publishers’ content and vice versa, the EC said. Finally, scientific publishers floated a licensing clause for subscription-based material sought by non-commercial researchers, the EC said.

“Largely Unbalanced Group”

Not everyone was enthusiastic about the outcome of the dialogue. The European Digital Media Association (EDiMA) said that “any corresponding conclusions from the process represent only the views of a limited number of stakeholders and should not be taken as wider policy conclusion and/or endorsement by those who may have attended as observers.”

EDiMA, whose members include Amazon EU, Apple, eBay and Google, said that as an observer it wasn’t able to participate in the development of stakeholder agreements “and as such cannot endorse any of the final conclusions or results.” It noted that due to several factors, including an “overly restrictive scope of discussions,” several stakeholders withdrew from the process, leaving a “largely unbalanced group of participants without any significant civil society, consumer, or user representation.” The organisation urged the EC to engage with “ALL” stakeholders in future discussions.

Several civil society groups slammed Licences for Europe for largely failing to “identify any solutions which can be backed by all, or even the majority of, stakeholders involved.” It’s clear that there’s little consensus on how to make EU copyright law and practice fit for the digital age, said La Quadrature du Net and European Digital Rights, among others. It’s also uncertain how licensing solutions can significantly improve copyright system widely recognised as being inefficient and out of date, they said.

La Quadrature pressed the EC to “stop delaying” the full review of existing copyright laws. Among other things, it said, the EC must reopen the list of possible exceptions to see if any need to be adapted to the changed environment, they said.

The EC intends to monitor the commitments made at the dialogue and will follow up more specifically on some, it said. In parallel to Licences for Europe, the EC is reviewing EU copyright law to determine whether legislative reforms should be proposed in the spring, it said. An impact assessment is underway and the EC will soon launch a public consultation on the ongoing review, it said.

Information about the Licences for Europe programme is here.