Interview with MEP Ruth Hieronymi

Interview with MEP Ruth Hieronymi

Online copyright: “I invite the sector to find a solution urgently”
By Nathalie Vandystadt | 11 January 2008

A member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Culture and Education, Ruth Hieronymi (EPP-ED, Germany) was the rapporteur on the revised Television Without Frontiers Directive. She comments on the debate over copyrights in the digital environment, relaunched with the ‘online content’ communication, on the initiative of Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding (see Europolitics 3442).

Do we need a directive on online content (films, music, video games, etc)?
Online content does not know any borders and is increasing. We will have problems if we do not act. Who will be responsible? Member state A or B? But it is extremely difficult to act because national legislations on copyrights are different. That’s why the Commission’s approach is perhaps the right one: publish a very broad communication, followed by a public consultation, creating an ‘online content’ platform. Now, I am asking the sector to participate in this consultation.

Can they be mixed?
I am convinced that it will be very hard to find adequate solutions, and harder still for all the sectors in a single framework. That is why I feel that the Commission’s two-phase approach is the right one (communication and consultation). On this basis, we need a recommendation, which will also be difficult to draft. We still cannot say if the recommendation will be sufficient or if we will need an additional directive. It is also too early to say that we must separate the sectors.

What strategy do you recommend to the EP?
I am not convinced that we must prepare a report now. If you respect the consultation, you must integrate the results. We are going to discuss it within the Culture Committee. Perhaps it would be better for it to accompany this consultation. It will end on 29 February, then perhaps we can organise a public hearing to give the sector another opportunity to express itself and to give Parliament more information.

The EP is already demanding a directive on online music...
The recommendation on online music depends on the Commission’s DG Internal Market. The result is that we have no solution. The Parliament is asking for a directive to show the points we are opposed to in the content of this recommendation. Because it does not respect the sector’s positions. It only respects internal market issues and not cultural diversity. The result is that the smallest member states have no chance to keep their online music repertoire.

Has this debate moved forward?
No, because there is no real dialogue. As long as there is no dialogue between the Commission and the Parliament, or with the creative sector, the authors, there will be no solution. And I don’t want such a blocked situation for other sectors. This is why this communication must be considered as a chance for dialogue.

What solution is there to develop pan-European licences?
I invite the sector to find a solution urgently. I still hope that the online music sector, that companies managing copyrights, find a compromise, by updating, for example, the Santiago and Barcelona agreements (1) . And that it presents it to the Commission. Perhaps it is possible for [Competition Commissioner] Neelie Kroes to accept it, and then we can tell [Internal Market Commissioner] Charlie McCreevy to accept it as well.

What does the legal action against the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers, and 24 of its members, say about reciprocal agreements between societies of authors? (2)
I am not satisfied that the decision is left up to Kroes because she must decide from a competition perspective. A decision on copyrights regarding online music in accordance with competition law is neither adequate nor sufficient. I therefore urge the sector to find a solution by itself. Otherwise, we will have to accept the domination of competition law. I hope that they will do it in the coming weeks. Otherwise, the problems will grow. That would be a bad signal to send to the other online sectors.

1. Attempts to put in place international agreements between companies managing copyrights through the Santiago agreements on broadcasting (2000) and Barcelona agreements on reproduction (2001), have been criticised by the Commission’s DG COMP, especially for the ‘economic residency’ clause imposed on commercial users, see 3403.
2. The Commission is above all contesting the so-called ‘territoriality clause’, which prevents commercial users operating in several countries from receiving a licence for the whole of the EU from a single collecting company.