[A2k] Fwd: TR : European Charter for Film Online endo rsed by major industry players - Commission PR

[Manon Ress]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Cornelia Kutterer" <cornelia.kutterer@beuc.org>
Date: May 24, 2006 3:11:24 AM EDT
To: <ip@tacd.org>
Subject: TR : European Charter for Film Online endorsed by major
industry players  - Commission PR

FYI

Cornelia
European Charter for Film Online endorsed by major industry players







Reference:  IP/06/672    Date:  23/05/2006




IP/06/672

Brussels, 23 May 2006

European Charter for Film Online endorsed by major industry players
At the Cannes Film Festival today, major representatives of the film
and content industry, of Internet service providers and of telecom
operators from the EU and the U.S. endorsed the European Film Online
Charter that they had jointly developed under the auspices of the
European Commission. This Charter – the first of its kind in the
world – identifies the preconditions for enabling content and
infrastructure providers to make film online services a commercial
success. The Charter will serve as reference for future commercial
agreements as well as for a broader Content Online policy of the
European Commission.

"The Film Online Charter is a major step forward for Europe’s digital
economy and for Europe’s content industry", said Viviane Reding, EU
Commissioner for Information Society and Media, who had initiated
this Charter in May 2005. ”Online services will substantially broaden
access to European film in all its diversity, and widen circulation
both within the European Union and on global markets. It is therefore
good news that content and infrastructure providers have today found
common ground for future commercial and inter-professional
agreements. This will also strongly inspire any future regulatory
initiative that the Commission will be considering to ensure that
legitimate online content can be made available in a consumer-
friendly way and across borders in the European Union".

Launched by the European Commission at last year's Cannes Festival at
a meeting with industry representatives, the European Film Online
Charter represents the industry consensus for the development of
legitimate markets for online sales and distribution of films.

The objective of the European Film Online is to encourage the
development and take-up of Film Online in Europe. The signatories to
the European Film Online Charter believe that Film Online services,
due to their economic and cultural potential, offer a tremendous
opportunity for a wider circulation of European films, can create a
more vibrant and competitive film sector and will become a powerful
driver for broadband in Europe.

The European Film Online Charter identifies four key elements which
are urgently needed for Film Online to be taken up: an extensive
online supply of attractive films; consumer-friendly online services;
adequate protection of copyrighted works; and close cooperation to
fight piracy.

In addition, the Charter also lists commendable practices for putting
audiovisual content online via legitimate services and in a consumer-
friendly way.

The consensus reflected in the European Film Online Charter includes:

the principle of the availability of films online on a fair,
economically sound basis, combined with the recognition that this
availability is related to the possibility of financing the high
costs of their production,
the recognition of opportunities that would be offered by Europe-wide
or multi-territory licences and clearances, especially for European
films with limited distribution outside their principal territories,
the need for film producers, right holders and online distributors to
agree on the most suitable online release window, while bearing in
mind the need for an attractive offer to the public,
the recognition of peer-to-peer technology as positive development
for the legitimate online distribution of properly secured content,
the essential need to create a culture of proper respect for
creativity and effective protection of copyright,
the commitment of online service providers to refrain from knowingly
showing advertisements from entities engaged in, or intentionally
inducing, piracy; accordingly, they will take the necessary steps to
end such practices as quickly as possible following adequate
notification,
the need for cooperation between content providers and online service
providers to develop technologies to protect copyrighted material.
Technologies should be promoted that are secure, cost effective,
robust, and interoperable, ideally based on open standards, across
multiple platforms and devices, and
the need for incentive schemes (such as the Media 2007 and the
eContent programme) to help reduce the costs of digital distribution
and multilingual versions of European works online.
The European Film Online Charter is set to become the point of
reference for the entire film and broadband industry. It is open for
endorsement by all interested parties, and in the coming months, many
more companies and organisations are expected to sign up to it.

For the Commission, the European Film Online Charter is also seen as
the first step towards developing a broader Content Online policy for
the European Union. The Commission will present a Communication on
this subject in autumn 2006.
For the full text of European Film Online Charter and the list of
signatories see:

http://ec.europa.eu/comm/avpolicy/other_actions/content_online/
index_en.htm

EUROPEAN CHARTER FOR THE DEVELOPMENT
AND THE TAKE-UP OF FILM ONLINE
LIST OF ENDORSING COMPANIES AND ORGANISATIONS
23 May 2006
BBC

Belgacom

CNC

Constantin Film AG

EMI Music

Fastweb S.p.A.

France Telecom Group

Gaumont

On Demand Group Ltd.

SACD

Tele2 AB

Telecom Italia Media

Thomson

Time Warner

Tiscali S.p.A.

UK Film Council

Vivendi

Zentropa Productions








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Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@cptech.org,
www.cptech.org

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