Daggers drawn over copyright levies

Artists and electronics firms are gearing up for a new fight over the reform of compensation schemes for private copying of creative works, amid speculation that proposals shelved by Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy at the end of last year may be resuscitated.

McCreevy had wanted to curb special levies, imposed on equipment such as Apple’s iPod, which are funnelled through national collecting societies to artists as compensation for legitimate private copying. He was forced to drop the plans in December on the orders of Commission President José Manuel Barroso, who had himself come under significant pressure from Dominique de Villepin, the then French prime minister.

The dossier was passed this year to Viviane Reding, the information society commissioner, who planned to address the issue in a communication entitled ‘creative content online in the single market’ set to be unveiled before the end of the year. McCreevy wrested back control of the dossier, however, vetoing a section of the communication which deals specifically with copyright levies.

Lobbyists in the creative sector, who were opposed to McCreevy’s proposals, expressed surprise at developments. Reding’s department, they felt, had been sympathetic to their concerns.

A recent copy of Reding’s communication seen by European Voice launches a consultation on challenges related to the "online distribution of creative content", with the aim of producing proposals for a recommendation covering digital rights management by the end of 2008. While it signals that "elements of a harmonised approach on compensation mechanisms for private copying" would be covered by the recommendation, it omits a section contained in an earlier draft outlining the challenges of reforming the levies system and the different positions taken by artists, industry and consumers.

The European Grouping of Societies of Authors and Composers (GESAC) proposed this month to Reding and McCreevy that the current system be tightened. "One of industry’s complaints was that certain operators were not abiding by the law," said legal adviser Victoriano Darias. "We proposed improved enforcement of current schemes to reduce the possibilities...for avoiding payments." Measures proposed included increased co-operation between collecting societies and customs and tax authorities, and the use of criminal sanctions for companies dodging levies.

Mark McGann, spokes-man for the Copyright Levies Reform Alliance and director-general of the European digital industries association EICTA, said that GESAC had "grabbed the wrong end of the stick". "What we’re saying is that levies are unfair," he said. "What we need is transparency in the system. These collecting societies don’t publish their accounts. They’re not answerable to public bodies." The situation was, he said, getting worse, with the French copyright authorities planning to extend the levies system to gaming consoles and mobile phones by the beginning of next year. McGann claims that 25% of copyright levies go to the French government’s coffers, with no publicly available figures on amounts granted to artists.

The present compensation system for legitimate copying has been in place since the 1960s. Artists have lobbied hard to retain the status quo arguing that, in the absence of effective copyright protection for digital material, the levies system is an important source of income for artists. The IT industry argues that it is unfair that it should be expected to compensate artists for piracy and is campaigning for caps on levies and increased scrutiny of the system. McCreevy’s spokesman declined to comment on recent developments.

Artists and electronics firms are gearing up for a new fight over the reform of compensation schemes for private copying of creative works, amid speculation that proposals shelved by Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy at the end of last year may be resuscitated.