BRUSSELS—The appointment of a former record industry representative as EU copyright chief has raised questions in Brussels about plans to overhaul the bloc's copyright rules, which musicians, companies, and EU Parliamentarians have all said need fundamentally changing.The Wall street journal, France Robinson, 14.04.11
Maria Martin-Prat, formerly director of legal affairs and deputy legal counsel of the record company trade association International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, will take over as head of the copyright unit in the European Commission's internal market department on April 16. But two members of the European Parliament have questioned the appointment in a formal request to the commission, the bloc's executive ...
Copyright reform's controversial start
Summer came early to Brussels last week – the sun shone, Place Lux was full of chino-wearing lobbyists, and two EU parliamentarians kicked off a row about copyright that will last all through the season of good weather* and barbecues.Dutch liberal MEP Marietje Schaake, who raised the question along with Swedish Pirate Party MEP Christian Engstrom, filed an official question regarding the commission’s appointment of Maria Martin-Prat, a former head of legal affairs for the record industry’s trade body, as new head of copyright with EU Commissioner Michel Barnier’s directorate general.Engstrom was as outspoken as you would expect a pirate, or Viking, to be about appointment on his blog:
Welcome to the European Union, where the big business lobby organizations are calling most of the shots at the Commission, and where citizens are just seen as a nuisance to be ignored. I guess the only real news is that they don’t even bother to try to hide it any more.But the row over Ms. Martin-Prat’s appointment is just part of a much wider debate in the EU — how to fix copyright and fight piracy. It’s an emotive issue that has caused tremendous controversy since Napster, Limewire and other peer-to-peer filesharing services emerged: an era when which pitted students in slogan T-shirts against Metallica. Rules that have their origins in the days of vaudeville and gramophone recordings (hence the term “mechanical rights”) are showing their age in an era of instant downloads, music on demand, and easy-peasy sharing of pretty much everything online. The debate is shaping up nicely. Schaake, one of the MEPs questioning the appointment, told Real Time Brussels:
European consumers are not able to conveniently access and enjoy music and films with their connected digital devices, but are forced into downloading from unauthorized sources. Piracy can be considered as unmet demand.In contrast, Frances Moore, CEO of record industry body IFPI, told this blog there are an “unprecedented number of ways” for Europeans to download legitimately, and that:
This is a problem affecting not just the music industry but most other creative industries as well. That is why piracy needs to be tackled for the legitimate market to realise its full potential.”What happens next? The commission is set to present its intellectual property right strategy in early May — get ready for a long, hot summer of copyright wrangling. *Good weather in Brussels = maybe slightly less rain than usual.
