Brussels, 28th June 2018

Open letter to all members of the European Parliament ahead of the plenary vote on copyright on 5th of July.

Dear Member of the European Parliament,

We are writing to you ahead of the July plenary session to ask you to vote in favour of the negotiating mandate given to MEP Axel Voss (Rule 69c) on the proposal for a copyright Directive.

We are aware that there is a massive disinformation campaign going on. Google has been influencing academics for years and has now been caught manipulating the press. Other tech companies are also in the mix. Many parliamentarians have complained that their work is being frustrated by robots spamming their email accounts. Concerns have already been raised about this in countries such as Denmark (here), Germany (here) and France (here).

Enough is enough… 

Music SMEs account for 80% of all new releases and have made a call for reason and truth, joining other organisations across the cultural sector.

This text has been adopted after 18 months of solid reflection.

We are talking about a wholesale review of copyright. It may be the first time in the world that the value gap issue is being tackled, but Europe is also introducing a range of other copyright reforms. The aim is to secure a fair and sustainable internet. 

The value gap (Article 13) is part of the review because of the disparity between the value created by the distribution of creative works on online platforms, and the little remuneration going back to creators. 

This proposal clarifies that online services providing access to copyright protected works uploaded by their users need a licence and must put in place measures to ensure the agreements function.

This is about empowering individual creators and creative SMEs and ensuring the internet is fair and sustainable for all. If all platforms distributing works have to play by the same rules, that means there will be more opportunities for other market players in Europe. 

There is no “Censorship machine”, “upload filter”, or “robocopyright”. These terms are being used by anti-copyright and pro-tech campaigners to try to hold onto the old world and avoid sharing revenues properly. 

This is not about filtering. It is about rebalancing our online world – so that citizens can continue to share on user upload platforms and creators can get paid.

Say NO to scaremongering and YES to creators getting paid. In other words, #vote4jurireport.