EC copyright proposal is a good first step

The European Commission today adopted its proposal to address copyright in the Digital Single Market.

IFPI welcomes this initiative, which attempts to address the “value gap”, the most important issue facing the music sector in Europe and worldwide.

The "value gap" is the massive mismatch between the growing consumption of music worldwide and the disproportionately small revenues that are returned to rights holders. It is caused by a market distortion allowing some major digital services to circumvent the normal rules of music licensing. This denies musicians, artists, composers and investors fair compensation for their work; lowers investment in and diversity of new music; and skews competition among digital services.

IFPI sees today’s proposal as a good first step in the process. Notably, the proposal confirms that user uploaded content services that promote and monetise music should be covered by the same copyright rules as other on-demand services.

Commenting on the proposal, IFPI Chief Executive, Frances Moore said:

"The music industry has transformed itself in recent years, licensing hundreds of services, widening choices for consumers and investing in new, creative ways to bring artists to a global audience. But to achieve sustainable growth, the music sector needs a level playing field. This means creating an environment where copyright rules are correctly applied so that creators and producers can be confident to invest and license. It also means allowing digital services to compete on fair terms and enabling consumers to enjoy access to diverse sources of licensed music.

"Today's proposal is a good first step towards creating a better and fairer licensing environment in Europe. Importantly, it confirms that user uploaded content services such as YouTube, which are the largest source of on-demand music, should not be able to operate outside normal licensing rules. However, there is a lot more to do to make this a workable proposal. We look forward to working on this in the coming months with the Parliament and Member States."

This article is available here: http://ifpi.org/news/European-commission-copyright-proposal-is-a-good-first-step.