Legal certainty
Protect content creation and support legal services
Piracy of copyright-protected content remains a serious problem in Europe, threatening both online safety for viewers and the underlying economics of the industry. The issue must continue to be addressed to ensure the market functions properly: “What is illegal offline should be illegal online.”
The European Commission should enforce, and ensure Member States correctly enforce, the key provisions of the Digital Services Act. When the Act is next reviewed, the EU should seize the opportunity to create tools to uncover mass piracy infrastructure, including expanding the “know your business customer” provisions of DSA Article 30.
Recommendation:
The Commission should ensure EU member states correctly implement and apply existing EU legislation to fight against illegally accessed and distributed content, while also exercising its direct enforcement competences appropriately. The DSA review should look at how it can be adapted better to address illegal activity online. The Commission should also ensure the ongoing review of the Live Piracy Recommendation concentrates on making available appropriate tools to address piracy of live events.
Maintain a stable and predictable copyright system
The AV sector depends on a stable and predictable copyright system that encourages creativity, risk-taking and innovation, and rewards success. The EU copyright system has evolved in line with technological development, including with major legislation in 2019 which introduced new exceptions and limitations to copyright, and new benefits for authors and performers.
The EU AI Act is establishing a legal framework for the responsible development, deployment, and use of AI models and systems, giving the sector the opportunity to adapt to both the technology and legislation to continue generating jobs and growth. EU institutions should exercise restraint in considering any new changes to the copyright frameworks, which have proven highly adaptable.
Recommendation:
The EU should maintain the stability and predictability of the recently updated body of EU copyright law, on which the success of the EU AV sector’s competitiveness is founded.
No to network fees
Imposing financial contributions on content and application providers to fund large telecom operators in any shape or form would fundamentally change the way the internet works and would negatively affect our members’ investment ability in AV works.
Our sectors are mutually beneficial and internet service providers (ISPs) benefit from our investment in creating AV content, which drives demand and revenue for their services.
Both VOD services and ISPs have a vested interest in providing great customer experience by investing in their infrastructure and interconnections.
There is no convincing evidence of market failure, nor justification to transfer value from one sector to another. Our concerns are shared (here and here) by an overwhelming majority of stakeholders, including the broader creative sector, consumers and the telecoms regulators.
Recommendation:
The EU should refrain from imposing any network fees regime that results in direct or indirect payments from content and application providers to providers of electronic communication networks.