A fight worthy of Hollywood

March 03, 2020 / By mobanmarket

A fight worthy of Hollywood

The Digital Single Market strategy’s approach to copyright promises to be one of the first and most hotly debated areas.

When Oscar-winning actors speak out against European copyright plans, Commissioners spar in public and committees send caustic e-mails vying for power, it foreshadows a fight of Hollywood proportions.

On Wednesday, the European Commission will unveil its Digital Single Market strategy, roughly six months in the making and many leaked drafts later. POLITICO received the latest version of the digital single market strategy Tuesday, and it is said to be about as final as it can get.

It tackles critical issues, including Internet platforms, telephone charges, data security and value-added taxes over the next several years.

Uniform copyright laws for the 28 member states, however, promises to be one of the first and most hotly debated areas.

The Commission wants to create a single digital marketplace for consumers, so shoppers in one country don’t pay more than those in another and have the same access to products and services. But they are likely to draw fire from many publishers, musicians, movie studios, software makers, and the like, with varying vested interests in the €509 billion copyright-related industry in the European Union each year.

Cross-border pricing and restricted access — also known as geo-blocking — have become a lightening rod in the debate.

Andrus Ansip, commissioner for the digital market strategy, has said he “hates” geo-blocking and promised to abolish it.

In response to Ansip’s hardline, Günter Oettinger, commissioner for digital economy and society, quipped, “I hate my alarm clock at five in the morning. We should not throw the baby out with the bath water.”

In the latest draft of the strategy, the Commission said it wanted “full portability of legally acquired content,” yet seemed to have backed down from an outright ban on geo-blocking. They would focus instead on “unjustified” practices.

The movie companies aren’t taking the news well. They risk losing their ability to raise money to finance films by selling exclusive rights in different markets to the highest bidders.

“An unbalanced industry, whose workers are not adequately protected, will fail sooner or later,” Oscar-winning actor Javier Bardem said in a statement. “What we ask is to be able to participate in the economic results of the works…We, the actors, are the most interested in the audiovisual works reaching the broadest possible diffusion and economic results.”

Consumer advocates, however, are alarmed by the toned-down language in the latest draft. They want geo-blocking scrapped altogether so consumers have the freedom to access legally obtained content abroad as well as at home. They argue this will decrease content piracy.

“The vast majority [of consumers] are unsure what are they entitled to do with copyrighted content such as music and film,” said Monique Goyens, director general of BEUC, the European consumer organization.

Broadcasters, for their part, say they would support access and choice for consumers, but balked at the idea of scrapping geo-blocks.

“It is our view that the current flexibility to clear rights and offer services in one country, regionally or pan-European, should be preserved,” said Lauri Kivinen, chief executive of YLE, the Finnish broadcaster.

The European Broadcasting Union, a public broadcasters alliance, wants the application of the law of the country of origin of the broadcaster extended to the licensing of broadcasters’ online services.

“That’s the only way to do it,” said Nicola Frank, a spokeswoman.

Some current laws protect consumers under whichever law is stronger, their home country or the seller’s.

“We must retain this,” said Goyens of BEUC.

While industry groups duke it out, there is another fight escalating behind the scenes.

At least three Parliamentary committees are jousting for control of the implementation.

“Five years ago very few people were speaking about copyright and digital,” said Eva Paunova, a member of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) committee. “Now that it is one of the top priorities of the [President Jean-Claude] Juncker Commission, it has become a hot topic.”

Asked what role IMCO would play, Paunova said, “We are wondering too. We are asking all the time. We think we should be leading.”

IMCO and the committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) have locked horns over which group has the competences to be in charge.

E-mails questioning each other’s jurisdiction have been flying between the offices of Vicky Ford, IMCO chair, and Jerzy Buzek, chair of both ITRE and the Conference of the Committee Chairs (CCC).

Buzek, for example, complained about IMCO’s re-launch a working group on the digital single market and urged the CCC to deny IMCO’s request.

“The draft programme of this working group, as adopted by IMCO coordinators, steps into other committees’ competences…,” he wrote last month in a letter seen by POLITICO. The letter was sent in his capacity as chair of ITRE to himself as chair of the CCC.

The hostility was returned the next day by Ford.

Ford’s office said she would not be commenting on the issue. Buzek’s office denied hostility existed between the two committees.

On top of that, the Committee on Legal Affairs, or JURI, is stepping into the ring. “You can argue among yourselves, but eventually it will all come back to JURI,” parried back Axel Voss, vice chair of the committee, which is expected to be in charge of implementation of copyright provisions. “We’re just outsourcing all the details.”

This article was updated on May 5 to clarify a comment made by the EBU.