In 2019 after long negotiations, the EU Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market was adopted. Article 18 of this Directive obliges Member States to ensure that authors and performers receive fair and proportionate remuneration from the exploitation of their work, including in the online environment. It is however for the Member States to put in place the necessary mechanisms to ensure that such remuneration is effectively granted to authors and performers.
The transposition of the Directive has been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As Member States resume discussions on how best to implement the Directive, we urge members of the European Parliament to follow very closely this debate at national level.
The European Parliament fought very hard in the negotiations leading to the 2019 Copyright Directive for a positive change that would guarantee that performers can make a living from the exploitation of their performances, including via digital platforms.
Indeed, the COVID-19 pandemic, with tens of thousands of performers receiving close to nothing as European audiences massively turned to streaming content, has demonstrated how fragile the current system is and how much this provision must be given full meaning in practice.
We therefore call on MEPs to ensure that Member States will deliver an effective implementation of article 18, which will guarantee that performers are at last fairly remunerated in the digital environment.
Signed:
Tilo Gerlach, President AEPO-ARTIS
Dominick Luquer, General Secretary FIA
Benoît Machuel, General Secretary FIM
Nacho Garcia Vega, President IAO
The open letter is available here:
Open Letter to the European Parliament: Performers call on MEPs to ensure that their efforts to guarantee fair remuneration, including from online exploitation, are not “lost in transposition”.
