EANA, founded in 1956, comprises 32 news agencies inside and outside the European Union.
EANA is the 20th media organization joining the CEPIC coalition.
EANA President Peter Kropsch, CEO of Austrian news agency APA, said:
“EANA is pleased for the opportunity to support CEPIC´s initiative to clarify the situation related to rights on pictures at the European level. The core of the news agency business model is based on trade with rights to use content. Almost all news agencies offer picture services today. Due to rising demand for visual content, the importance of the picture business is constantly enhancing. EANA strongly believes that sustained production of quality content – be it text or be it picture – must be based on a clear rights situation that offers a fair share to the producers of quality news services.”
CEPIC President Alfonso Gutierrez said:
”We applaud EANA’s decision to join forces with CEPIC to protect the interest of all right holders in the licensing chain of visual and newsworthy content. We are glad to see that we both share the same views with regards to the importance of safeguarding the production of high quality visual content by ensuring that all visual content providers are fairly treated for all their efforts. We have now a unique opportunity to raise the voice of an important industry which unfortunately is often underestimated”.
On 8 November 2013, CEPIC submitted a formal antitrust complaint against Google’s use of third-party images before the European Commission on behalf of thousands of photographers and picture agencies. The complaint addresses Google’s various unauthorized uses of third-party images in its horizontal Web Search and its specialized services, in particular Google Images. Google increasingly uses on-line images without the rightholders’ consent, sometimes even against their explicit will.
“Since the redesign of Google Images in January 2013, the situation has become worse: Google presents images in full size and high resolution on its site and enables users to download them without ever having to click through to the original website that hosts the image” CEPIC stressed.
“As a result of these developments, Google diverts users’ attention from the legitimate rightholders to its own services, benefiting thereby from the rightholders’ investments. The image providers in turn are deprived of the credit and fruits of their work.”
“Since Google at the same time rejects the implementation of any adequate technical mechanism that would allow image providers to better control how their images appear on-line, CEPIC considers Google’s exploitation of third-party’s images as an abuse of dominance under Article 102 AEUV.”
- Full original press release and background information may be found HERE
CEPIC is a European not for profit trade association in the field of image rights. It was founded in 1993 and registered as an Economic European Interest Group (EEIG) in Paris in 1999. CEPIC today represents approx. 800 picture agencies and libraries in 20 countries across Europe, both within and outside the European Union.
EANA is a not for profit association comprising news agencies in 32 European countries. It was founded in 1956 and serves as a forum for cooperation, exchange of experiences between the member agencies. Among priorities are copyright and related rights to secure a business environment where news agencies can fulfil the task of independent and unbiased news reporting.
May 20, 2014
- For more information:
Ms Sylvie Fodor, Executive Director, CEPIC, email s.fodor@cepic.org, mobile + 49 30 889 101 60
Mr Erik Nylen, Secretary General, EANA, email: erik-n@telia.com, mobile +46 739 865272
