Lisbon seeks to broker deal as artists fight for copy rights

Date: 16/03/2000

By Peter Chapman

THE EU's most glamorous lobbying battle is set to be reignited after lying dormant since MEPs held their first reading on new Union-wide copyright rules last year.

This time, the spotlight is on EU presidency holder Portugal as it works overtime to clinch a final deal on the complex draft directive. The issue was top of the agenda at a meeting of internal market ministers today (16 March), but few diplomats believed an accord would be struck given the Pandora's box of issues which were still unresolved.

The controversial proposals are aimed at bringing regulations crafted in the old days of analogue technology up to date with the digital age, but they have sparked fierce clashes between two giants - the music industry and European's telecoms operators.

The music industry is demanding tough rules to prevent pirates from using the new technology to make wholesale digital copies of artists' works. It also fears the threat from on-line technology which now allows even the most amateur home users to compile their own digital-quality albums by downloading music from the Internet and copying it onto recordable CDs or DVDs.

The world's top record labels spent big money mobilising some of their star names to stunning effect when the European Parliament voted on the proposals last February. Their spokesman Jean Michel Jarre and Irish band The Corrs skilfully argued the case for a tough on-line copyright regime to combat the pirates.

They insisted that the industry must be given the right to veto all content delivered 'on demand' over the Internet and digital TV and radio services, and called for an outright ban on all unauthorised digital copies of their works with a few very limited exceptions for private copying and for special groups such as the disabled. They argued that even temporary copies automatically held in computer servers while they are being transmitted over the Internet should be authorised in advance by the rights' holder, and won MEPs' support for their stance.

But a formidable counter-lobby of telecoms operators and Internet service providers (ISPs) complained that this would be totally unworkable, and would leave them the impossible task of scanning everything which passed over their networks. Former Single Market Commissioner Mario Monti agreed, arguing that the ISPs and operators should not have to seek authorisation for such 'cache' copies.

A year later, the same issues remain unresolved, even though the Portuguese have been working hard in recent weeks to put together a compromise acceptable to all sides. It has proposed exempting network operators from copyright concerns when they make copies which are an "integral part" of the transmission process.

Meanwhile, member states remain divided over the way levy schemes should be set up to compensate artists for those private digital copies tolerated by rights holders.

The Commission's proposal states that governments should establish suitable schemes to ensure artists are 'fairly remunerated' for copies of their works, but it does not stipulate how this should be done. Some member states are pushing for harmonised levies on digital copying equipment, while others oppose digital levies altogether.

The UK is in the latter camp, arguing that it would be unfair to charge consumers for 'time shifting' (recording something to play later). But officials have indicated that London would support a compromise deal which would allow member states to charge a 'zero levy'.

But the mere mention of the word 'levy' frightens consumer-electronics manufacturers who make the equipment that would be used for copying digital works. They claim levies would amount to a tax on e-commerce and the Internet, and put a break on Europe's race to catch up with rivals in the US and Asia.

The EU's most glamorous lobbying battle is set to be reignited after lying dormant since MEPs held their first reading on new Union-wide copyright rules in 1999. The controversial proposals are aimed at bringing regulations crafted in the old days of analogue technology up to date with the digital age, but they have sparked fierce clashes between two giants - the music industry and Europe's telecoms operators. Article forms part of a survey on the Information Society.