GMR
ISRC
30th January 2018
IFPI, alongside 23 other creative industry organisations including authors, performers, publishers, filmmakers, TV producers, European football leagues and photo agencies, have written to the new presidency of the European Council seeking an effective solution to the Value Gap.
The letter is in advance of a meeting tomorrow wherein the EU’s 28 governments will steer their approach on the draft Copyright Directive.
The Value Gap arises because some major and highly popular digital services are able to circumvent the normal rules that apply to music licensing. User uploaded content services such as YouTube comprise the world’s largest on-demand music audience, estimated at more than a billion users. These UUC services claim they do not need to negotiate licences for the music available on their platform, or conclude licences at artificially low rates.
Instead they claim protection from so-called “Safe Harbour” rules that were established in the early days of the internet. These liability provisions in the US and EU were intended to protect truly passive online intermediaries from copyright liability. They were not designed to exempt companies who actively engage in the distribution of music online from playing by the same rules as other online music services.
The EU Copyright Directive proposal seeks to clarify this market and licensing situation.
Read the full letter here.
For further information please contact:
Johnny.Phelan@ifpi.org / +32 (0) 2 511 92 08
John.Blewett@ifpi.org / +44 (0)20 7878 7979
@IFPI_ORG