[A2k] Future of copyright: La Quadrature calls on the Commission to reassert the public's rights

[Jérémie ZIMMERMANN - La Quadrature du Net]

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http://www.laquadrature.net/en/future-of-copyright-la-quadrature-calls-on-t=
he-commission-to-reassert-the-publics-rights


La Quadrature du Net has submitted its response to the European
Commission's consultation regarding "Online Creative Content". La
Quadrature calls on the Commission to reconsider the EU's coercive and
repressive copyright policies, while encouraging it to match words to
deeds by fostering the rights of the public in the digital creative
ecosystem.


Download "Creative Content in the Digital Age: Reasserting the Rights of
the Public" in PDF.
http://www.laquadrature.net/files/LaQuadratureduNet-20100105-Online_Creativ=
e_Content_Consultation.pdf


*** Executive Summary

Cultural rights. The 1948 Universal declaration of human rights, article
27 :

(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of
the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement
and its benefits.

(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material
interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production
of which he is the author.


The Internet and other information and communications technology bring
about a fundamental change in the political economy of communications
and, through the development of new modes of production and distribution
of cultural works, represent an opportunity for a more inclusive and
democratic cultural sphere. Given these structural changes, the overall
objective of cultural policy in the digital age should go back to the
founding principles of copyright: increasing access to creative content
such as music, books, and movies while rewarding artists and ensuring
investment in a wide variety of works.

The result of more than three decades of expansion of informational
property rights, today's copyright regime is by far too rigid and is in
practice profoundly at odds with the digital environment. If our
societies are to fully benefit from the Internet, lawmakers need to move
away from brutal enforcement of outdated and restrictive “intellectual
property” regimes and demonstrate pragmatism. In particular, one
fundamental fact needs to be acknowledged by policy-makers and cultural
businesses alike: digital technologies allow for the perfect replication
of cultural goods at virtually no cost. Regulations that run counter to
this reality – for example by trying to alter the architecture of the
Internet in order to deter copyright infringements, or by imposing
technical measures that artificially recreate the scarcity that existed
in the “old” cultural economy – defy common sense and hold back
socio-economic progress while being often unrealistic from a technical
point of view.

Accordingly, the European Digital agenda should reject such endeavors
and seek to reorganize the Internet-based creative economy around the
emancipatory practices enabled by new technologies, such as the sharing
and re-use of creative works. These practices promise a participatory
culture where people can not only access, share and comment the works of
others, but also use new tools to express their own. If the European
Union adapts copyright law in accordance with new technologies, a
vibrant and innovative commercial cultural economy can develop along
with other financing schemes to support this new creative ecosystem and
provide appropriate monetary rewards for creators. Some cultural
industries will undoubtedly complain about this evolution, in which they
will loose the control they exerted on distribution channels and see
their rents eroded. However, society as a whole will benefit from a
new-found balance between the rights of the public and the interests of
authors and producers. Otherwise, copyright will face a disastrous
legitimacy crisis.


    * The fist part of this document discusses some fundamental elements
of EU copyright policy that are not addressed by the Commission's
consultation paper. We take the view that to achieve the goal of a
“modern, pro-competitive, and consumer-friendly” digital single market
for creative content, the coercive and repressive components of European
copyright policy need to be revised.

    * In the second part, we turn to some of the possible actions
outlined in the Commission's document. We make the case for a unified EU
legal framework for the Internet-based creative economy that would
foster the rights of the public in the digital environment, while
pointing out to regulations and funding mechanisms that would sustain
the renewed creative economy.


- --
- ---  La Quadrature du Net --- http://www.laquadrature.net


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