Google, Facebook, publishers. Who is ranting against the government about copyright the most?
Facts, comments and analysis by experts and professionals on the draft decree transposing the EU Directive 2019/790 on copyright and related rights in the digital single market
Italian-style digital copyright inquiries.
Here's what's going on.
The methods of transposition of the Copyright Directive in Italy risk turning into a boomerang for the publishers of online and specialized newspapers: this is the alarm launched by Anso (National Association of Online Press) and Anes (National Association of Sector Publishing) in a letter to the ministers of culture Dario Franceschini and of digital transformation Vittorio Colao.
This is what the Corriere delle Comunicazioni has revealed in recent days.
"The transposition of article 15 of the Copyright Directive does not encourage the exchange of value between digital platforms and publishers, but on the contrary tends to create excessively stringent constraints and to favor large generalist publishing to the detriment of smaller, local, technical subjects. professional and specialized and online, producing market asymmetries and risking to generate considerable damage to the sector as a whole ", highlighted the two associations in reference to the text on which the Ministry of Culture and the Department for Publishing conducted a tour of hearings.
According to Anso and Anes, not leaving publishers "the freedom to choose whether or not to conclude agreements with platforms" or in fact limiting the possibility of providing free licenses reduces "not only the autonomy of publishers enshrined in the Directive but risks creating a serious brake on the development of those companies that intend to make the most of the opportunities offered by digital. " The inclusion of television publishing companies "among the entities to which the related right is recognized" is also criticized.
There is also a clear judgment on the "arbitration" role entrusted to Agcom, which "risks 'flattening' the market and canceling the differences, also of a technological nature, between the various players that the free market and free negotiation instead enhance, nullifying the enormous efforts that digital native publishers and publishers who have invested in the integration between traditional and digital offer have put in place in recent years to be technologically advanced and de facto discouraging innovation for the next few years. " According to local, technical-professional and specialized editors, the criteria that Agcom should take into consideration for determining fair compensation "risk penalizing digital native publishers".
"Our sector does not need to impose restrictions on the freedom of choice and economic and contractual initiative of publishers, but rather to see the efforts made by individual companies for greater innovation and digitization, as well as incentives to continue to pursue these objectives, enhanced. and investing in new resources and infrastructures that allow companies to compete effectively on the market ”.
In recent days, with editorials in the press and interviews on the web is also a university professor expert on the issue, Giuseppe Colangelo, scientific coordinator of the Deep-In research institute.
"All that remains is to hope for the intervention of the Council of Ministers to correct this approach and relocate the Italian discipline within the European framework, before the Court of Justice does", wrote today in Corriere della Sera Colangelo, introducing himself as a professor associate of Economic Law and Jean Monnet Chair in Eu Innovation Policy (University of Basilicata), Ttlf Fellow (Stanford Law School) and adjunct professor of Markets, Regulations and Law (Luiss)
Colangelo also refers to the draft decree transposing Directive 2019/790 on copyright and related rights in the digital single market; the draft forthcoming discussion in the Council of Ministers "rests on an incorrect assumption: the Directive does not introduce an obligation to negotiate between the parties, but rather provides for the recognition of a related right as the essential tool to facilitate the granting of licenses and guarantee at the same time the necessary flexibility to the parties. This emerges clearly from the spirit and text of the European standard and was unequivocally confirmed by Commissioner Breton in a parliamentary question ”, criticized the professor.
“A series of provisions which are completely absent in the text of the Directive and completely divorced from the regulatory framework outlined by the latter flow from this erroneous assumption. In particular, reference is made to the introduction of arbitration by AgCom and to the provision of fair compensation – added Colangelo – These forecasts, in reality, indicate that the model to which the proposal in question was inspired is not the European one. but the Australian Mandatory Trading Code. It is a pity, however, that the Australian solution is independent of copyright, thus placing itself outside the perimeter outlined by the European Directive and characterizing itself, instead, as a regulatory intervention of a competitive nature ".
"The reference to the fair remuneration that would be due to publishers is a further provision completely unrelated to the European standard, which, however, provides for this measure to be borne by publishers and in favor of authors and interpreters – added Colangelo in Corriere della Sera – Concerns also emerge with reference to a too narrow definition of what would constitute a "short extract", that is, the main exception to related law, together with hyperlinks and individual words. In fact, it is legitimate to believe that the short excerpt (like that of best efforts pursuant to art. 17 of the Directive) is to be considered a European notion, therefore removed from the "creativity" of national legislators. "
Yet, Colangelo remarked in an interview with Formiche.net , “Italy has undertaken not to deviate too much from the European groove, especially in a case like this it would be better to be clear and uniform. There is a risk, I would say certainty, that the law will be challenged, both at the EU Court of Justice and at the Constitutional Court, given that the interests at stake are enormous. The government was called upon by Parliament to protect the rights of publishers (broad label) and to better define the concept of a short excerpt, i.e. which part of the article is legitimate to publish on the platforms without having to negotiate a fee. The pattern that we face is not only contrary to the directive but exceeds the delegation, "said Colangelo, scientific coordinator of Deep-In, research institute sponsored by I-Com (which has among supporters even Google) that in cv Section "Grants, awards and research project" also means "Facebook (research on the national implementation of the Directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market, 2021; € 15,000)".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/google-facebook-editori-chi-sbraita-di-piu-contro-il-governo-sul-copyright/ on Thu, 05 Aug 2021 09:09:35 +0000.