Spain – AEPO-ARTIS

AEPO-ARTIS writes an open letter to the Spanish President Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón

AEPO-ARTIS — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 10:18:45 +0000

With start of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union, AEPO-ARTIS has addressed an open letter to the Spanish President Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón with the goal to highlight the significance of culture and advocate for the enhancement of performer’s rights, aligning with the priority placed on social and economic justice during this presidency.

Dear President of Spain,
Dear Mr. Sánchez Pérez-Castejón,

This week Spain officially took over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. For the next six months Spain will be leading the rest of the European Union in taking the most important decisions that need to be taken.

AEPO-ARTIS is a non-profit making organisation that represents 38 European performers ’ collective management organisations from 28 different countries, including the Spanish organisations AISGE and AIE. The number of performers, from the audio and audiovisual sector, represented by our members can be estimated at 650.000.

Looking at the ambitious program Spain has presented, we are grateful for the focus that is put on promoting greater social and economic justice and in particular the proposal to continue the debate at EU level on the need to improve the working, social security and tax conditions of artists through the promotion of a European Status of the Artist.

For AEPO-ARTIS, a strong protection of actors’ and musicians’ neighbouring rights is a vital element in such a Status of the Artist. This has already been recognised by the European Parliament. In its 2021 Resolution on the situation of artists and the cultural recovery in the EU the Parliament called copyright and neighbouring rights “the core of the fair remuneration of artists and creators” and insisted on the effective implementation of the 2019 Copyright directive with a strong focus on guaranteeing fair, appropriate and proportionate remuneration for performers.

So far only a few member states have effectively implemented this directive in a way that guarantees the principle of fair remuneration and three have not yet transposed it at all. We are therefore particularly pleased that it is Spain that has to guide these Member States in achieving an effective implementation.

Spain has a long tradition of copyright legislation that is based on respect for artists. With a non-transferable right to remuneration for authors and performers for all forms of digital exploitation, Spain is the EU Member State that offers our actors and musicians the best protection in all of Europe.

And the numbers show that this has benefited the Spanish music industry and audiovisual sector as a whole. AIE and AISGE have been able to collect and distribute remuneration for online exploitations for our performers without affecting other players. Promusicae’s most recent yearly report points out that the Spanish music industry saw its turnover increase by 12.43% in one year, for the third time in a row. And a recently published report by the European Audiovisual Observatory shows that Spain has climbed up to become the third most fiction film producing country in the EU. The climate in Spain is good. This is also confirmed by Netflix, which recently doubled its production capacity in Madrid.

We call upon the Spanish Presidency to continue to promote a strong protection of neighbouring rights and an effective right to remuneration for online exploitations during its Presidency. We trust that you will direct the Commission to closely monitor the effective implementation of the Copyright directive in all Member States with a focus on the effective improvement it has on the socio-economic position of our artists.

With the same objective, we call upon the Spanish Presidency to ensure that the ratification of the Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances by the EU will effectively empower our actors and contribute to their overall Status.

Finally, we invite the Spanish Presidency to intensively collaborate with Belgium to continue this work when handing over the Presidency at the end of the year. Belgium recently took the brave political decision to bring its legislation up to the level of Spain and an intensified collaboration will help in achieving the common goal of effectively protecting performers throughout the whole EU.

We remain at your disposal to discuss any of the above further.

On behalf of every performer whose work you have ever appreciated.

Most respectfully,

Ioan KAES

General-Secretary AEPO-ARTIS

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AEPO-ARTIS welcomes the CJEU ruling on the collection of private copy in Spain

admin — Fri, 09 Sep 2022 12:37:00 +0000

On September 8th 2022, the Court of Justice of the European Union issued its ruling in the case between the Federation of the Spanish Digital Industry sector (AMETIC) and Ventanilla Unica Digital (VUD), the Spanish one-stop-shop for the collection and distribution of the private copy levy (C‑263/21).

AMETIC had brought that case before the court hoping for the declaration of the illegality of the one-stop-shop that the collective management organisations for performers, authors, producers, and publishers had set up together to collect and distribute the private copy remuneration in Spain. The court completely dismissed the complaint in a short and unquestionably clear judgment.

While in almost all European member states the collection and distribution of the private copy levy has been running without problems for years via a one-stop-shop set up by the collective management organisations of the different categories of right holders: performers, authors, producers and publishers, in Spain this is only a recent phenomenon.

Until its abolition in abolition in 2016, Spain had financed the private copy remuneration from its General State Budget. In 2017, a royal decree obliged the Spanish CMOs to set up a one-stop-shop (VUD) to organise the collection and distribution of the private copy levy directly with the users. And in 2018 a second royal decree determined the conditions under which VUD had to organise the exemptions and reimbursements to which certain users were entitled (see C‑467/08 Padawan).

AMETIC was of the opinion that the fact that the granting of the exemptions and reimbursements was done by VUD itself constituted a conflict of interest. It considered it unlawful that there is a legal obligation for VUD to consist of the copyright management entities only and claimed that VUD had exorbitant powers, by virtue of which it can demand from applicants for an exemption or reimbursement, specific information on their activities.

This led to a twofold reference for a preliminary ruling by the CJEU.

Is the composition of a one-stop-shop, as imposed by Spanish law, compatible with Directive 2001/29/EC or, more generally, with the principles of the EU Law?
Is it compatible with Directive 2001/29/EC or with the general principles of EU Law to grant such one-stop-shop the power of requesting information, including accounting information, from those who apply for the certificate of exemption from the private copying compensation payment obligation?

In its judgment, the CJEU is very short and clear in stating that the exemption and reimbursement are rightly regarded as part of the general task of collecting and distributing the private copy compensation for right holders and that this task can only be assigned to organisations that represent those same right holders and are under their control. The court additionally confirms that this organisation can only perform such task correctly if it has the correct information to check whether an exemption or reimbursement is justified in accordance with the legally determined parameters and that the organisation has no discretion in this regard, but can only perform an objective control of those parameters.

As a result, it rules that:

The European Copyright framework and the principle of equal treatment must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation under which a legal person established and controlled by intellectual property rights management organisations is entrusted with the management of (i) exemptions from payment in respect of compensation for private copying and (ii) reimbursements in respect of such compensation […].
The European Copyright framework and the principle of equal treatment must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation which empowers a legal person, which is established and controlled by intellectual property rights management organisations […] to request access to the information necessary for the exercise of the powers of review conferred on it in that regard […].

AEPO-ARTIS welcomes this ruling. “This judgment positively confirms the legality of the model in use in most Member States whereby CMOs of performers and other right holders join forces to provide users with a transparent, user-friendly and non-discriminatory service that allows them to fulfil their obligations towards right holders.” says Ioan Kaes, General Secretary of AEPO-ARTIS.

The Spanish performers’ CMOs also reacted positively. “This decision is great news to improve the development of private copying in Spain. Together with the recently signed agreement with equipment manufacturers and importers to increase levies 50% we are convinced that we can reinforce the efficiency of the management of performer rights” says José Luis Sevillano, General Director of AIE.

“The decision is extremely positive not only for Spanish CMOs, but for all other European CMOs and the right holders they represent. From this decision it is now clear that national legislations in the EU may provide the possibility of CMOs to incorporate a “one-stop-shop”, controlled by such CMOs, for the management of private copy levy, including the exceptions from payments and the eventual reimbursements. And, more importantly, the decision declares that such “one-stop-shop” should be able to carry out verification processes, with no possibly for the manufacturers to refuse access to the corresponding accounting information, alleging the confidentiality of their business accounts.” says José Maria Montes, Director of Legal and International Affairs at AISGE.

Read the full decision on the website of the CJEU.

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National Media Briefing: Spain

admin — Thu, 23 Mar 2017 12:59:00 +0000

On 23 March 2017, the partners in the FAIR INTERNET Campaign with the support of AEPO-ARTIS members AIE and AISGE held a Spanish Media Briefing at the Silken Berlaymont Hotel in Brussels.

Entitled “Will the reform of the copyright directive ensure fair treatment of Spanish performers in the online world?” the event featured contributions from renowned Spanish performers Nacho García Vega, Javier Campillo, José Manuel Cervino as well as from José María Montes of AISGE.

The event was an opportunity for the speakers to share their views on the current reform of the EU copyright directive and its impact on performers in Spain with the journalists in attendance. One of the articles appearing in the Spanish press following the event is available at http://www.lavanguardia.com/vida/20170323/421128838935/artistas-espanoles-piden-a-ue-una-remuneracion-justa-por-explotacion-digital.html (in Spanish).

A press release following the event is available for download below (in Spanish).

⇒ LA SITUACION DE LOS ARTISTAS EN EL AMBITO DIGITAL.DOCX

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