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PrintThe European Commission is considering legislation to simplify the rules on distributing copyrighted films and video through the internet. It believes that the current licensing system for audio-visual content is too fragmented and is preventing businesses from operating effectively across the single market.
A Commission official said that the current regime was the main barrier to access across all member states to services such as BBC iPlayer, which allows people in the UK to watch BBC television and listen to BBC radio after the shows have aired.
Viviane Reding, the European commissioner for the information society, will set out the Commission's ideas on simplification in an ‘issues paper' expected in October.
The official said that one idea being considered was revising EU legislation from 1993 on cable and satellite broadcasting so that it also covers the online transmission of content. The directive allows collecting societies (which represent rights-holders) to grant broadcasters licences that are valid across the EU.
The official said that a revision could extend this ‘one-stop-shop' principle to companies wishing to transmit content over the internet.
Simple framework
Reding said in a speech earlier this month: “Consumers often cannot access online content if uploaded in another member state.
For online content in a single market of 27 member states, economies of scale and consumer friendly solutions will require a much simpler and less fragmented regulatory framework than the one of today.” She added that the internet needed “similar solutions” to those previously used for free-to-air satellite TV.
Individual agreements
Supporters of change argue that the current regime is too rooted in national territorial licensing, meaning that operators are forced to secure individual licensing agreements with national collecting societies in each country where they want the content to be available.
They argue that this makes rights clearance unnecessarily costly and time-consuming.
Cable Europe, an association representing broadband cable TV operators, supports reform of current licensing arrangements, and believes that it could help to counter online piracy.
Caroline van Weede, the association's managing director, said: “The easier and more straightforward this is, the more time companies will have to get on with the business of producing and distributing content for consumers, rather than spending resources on clearing the rights.
“Why should there be any special distinction for content online or offline, so long as it is plentiful and legal?” she asked. “If we really want to encourage people to access content legally, we need to make it simple.”
Collecting societies, however, are urging the Commission to tread carefully.
Véronique Desbrosses, secretary-general of GESAC, an association bringing together European authors and composers' collecting societies, said that the online sector is “more complex” than traditional broadcasting and that the Commission should hold a thorough consultation on any possible reform of the cable and satellite directive.
She said that the Commission has suffered from “a lack of co-ordination” in its policy towards online licensing, and that this had contributed to legal uncertainty. “It's not a good situation for rights-holders,” she said.
