Music industry set to bang the drum again in fight over ‘hotchpotch’ online copyright deal

Date: 19/10/00

By Peter Chapman

THE battle over online copyright resumes next month when MEPs debate the latest twists in negotiations on planned EU legislation designed to bring outdated rules up to speed with the Internet revolution.

The European Parliament's legal affairs committee will be the first to assess the compromise struck by Union single market ministers in the summer, with the full assembly expected to vote on the proposals in January.

Experts say it is too early to predict which way the Parliament will swing in the great copyright debate. But lobbyists from several key sectors of industry are already preparing for the next round of the fight, hoping to undo what they claim is the significant damage wrought by national governments.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry claims member

states have stripped away too many of the music sector's rights, while the European Association of Consumer Electronics Manufacturers (EACEM) has described the draft deal as "a complete hotchpotch". Only one group - telecoms operators and Internet service providers - were relatively satisfied with what emerged, after winning assurances that they would not be forced to seek prior approval from rightsholders for the 'cache' copies which computer networks make as part of their normal operation.

Despite the cool reception, it is difficult to blame the Portuguese presidency - which chaired ministerial negotiations on the issue in the first half of this year - for the deal's shortcomings. As Lisbon worked frantically to broker an accord before it handed over the presidency baton to Paris, it had to find ways round a host of obstacles blocking agreement.

Firstly, there were French, Spanish and

Belgian demands that creators' rights be protected from wholesale digital copying. This prompted concern among other member states - including the UK and Netherlands - that tough rules would prevent consumers making private digital copies of music or television programmes simply so they could listen or watch at their convenience.

Lisbon also faced demands for the right to retain the exemptions from copyright rules for digital works which already exist in the analogue world, such as for pictures of public buildings.

The result was a compromise which, if adopted, would give member states significant leeway in implementing the planned legislation. It would allow govern-ments to keep current exemptions, such as those granted to libraries and the disabled, backed by an EU-wide requirement for member states to act if copyright-holders used technical measures to thwart them. Private copying would be allowed, but governments would be able to decide whether to enforce that right or not.

EACEM claimed this would undermine the market for digital playback and recording equipment because some Union countries would almost certainly allow home copying while others would not. "It is a classic Euro-deal. Every member state gets what it wants. But it is bad law because you are going to end up with 15 different regimes," said EACAM secretary-general Townsend Feehan.

The Coalition of Rights-holders, a group of 31 content providers and artists, also claimed the draft legislation would drive a wedge through their efforts to go digital. The IFPI says individual member states would have the right to define an acceptable level of private copying and interfere with the technology used to stop it. This would undermine the millions of euro invested in digital music - and deter future investments.

The IFPI, which organises the star-studded Platinum Music Awards in Brussels, will go on using its celebrity mouthpiece - Irish pop band The Corrs - to try to influence the debate. MEPs can also expect to be bombarded by EACEM and its members demonstrating how new copying technology need not lead to copyright infringement.

If MEPs call for only minor changes to the ministerial accord, experts claim the legislation could be formally approved soon after the full assembly's January vote. But if they demand a major overhaul, the timetable could stretch to the spring as MEPs and diplomats try to thrash out their differences.

Article forms part of a survey 'EU and the media'.