In a joint statement to Members of the European Parliament, FIA, FIM and UNI MEI urged all political groups to give their final approval next week to the compromise agreement reached at trilogue on the draft Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, as approved by the EP Legal Committee on February 26, 2019.
The European Parliament will vote on the legislative proposal on 26 March.
Chapter III of this Directive includes provisions that constitute a first, encouraging step in the right direction, as they seek to increase transparency on contractual relations and level up the remuneration initially agreed, often little more than symbolic, with subsequent revenues. Most importantly, this text – already approved by Council – establishes that the remuneration of authors and performers must be proportionate to the revenues generated by the exploitation of their work and that lump sum payments are to be the exception, rather than the rule.
Performers and authors have been advocating for more than a decade for normative measures to ease them out of precariousness and abusive contractual practices, denying them a fair share of the revenues generated by the exploitation of their work, including in the on-demand environment.
In their joint statement, FIA, FIM and UNI MEI stress how, at this late stage in the negotiation and after a very long legislative process, any attempt to depart from that compromise may disrupt the whole normative process and cause irreparable damage. The three organisations urge all members of the European Parliament to resist the manifold attempts to undermine this hard-fought compromise and approve the draft Directive text, as approved by trilogue and JURI.
UNI MEI has also joined a coalition of rights holders compromising more than 300 national, European and international organisations of the creative industries. Leading up to the debate in Plenary the coalition pleads with decision makers to seize this historic opportunity to empower creators in the digital economy.
Download the statements here
