FROM THE CEPIC NEWSLETTER
Date: 4 August 2021
The German implementation law takes liberty with the EU Directive as it includes provisions that were never debated at Brussels level. For visual content providers the main controversial provisions are the introduction of the exception for pastiche and caricature and a "de minimis" provision that limits the scope of the law to images above 125 KB.
Since only 22 countries have implemented the Directive i.e. Art.17 the question is whether some of them will follow the German example. Stakeholders of the creative industries in Brussels have steadily raised concerns
News in German:
DATE: 7 May 2021
The deadline for implementation of Art.17 establishing a new regime of liability of online content sharing services for creative content uploaded on their platform is the 7th of June.
One month before implementation within the EU is far from being completed: as of today only the Netherlands and Hungary have implemented it. A few countries have a draft implementation text, the large majority has nothing.
The most controversial bill is the German bill. Read why HERE ...
CEPIC has been actively voicing the views of the image licensing industry.
Coordinated by IFPI - representing global music producers in Brussels - the attached letter against the German implementation proposal of article was sent on 29 April to a number of German MPs and EU officials. It is extremely unusual that Brussels based stakeholders take a stance against a national implementation of a EU Directive. In the present case, stakeholders of the creative industries have found that the German implementation of Article 17 proposal so much distorts the letter and spirit of the EU copyright directive that the step was necessary. The letter is the second one of its kind and was discussed in collaboration with representatives of the German trade associations including BVPA.
DATE: 11 February 2021
To the dismay of the German creative industries community (see Statement below), the German government has approved a bill to implement Art.17 which includes provisions that will be detrimental to, rather than supportive of, the creative industries.
Politics has missed the chance to create justice in the digital market - to the detriment of the German creative industries. The winners are the global online platforms.
The copyright reform bill approved today by the cabinet damages the German creative industries and the European single market! Politicians have missed the opportunity to create justice in the digital market - the winners are the global platforms.
DATE: 28 January 2021
Menawhile the German government has postponed the publication of the legislation dealing with the implementation of Article 17 to February. Consultations had taken place in the summer and fall.
According to leaks, one of the most controversial provisions of the drafts has been attenuated: the size of images that can be freely dowloaded is down from 250 K to 125 K.
DATE: 3 December 2020
In an usual move a coalition of EU stakeholders, including CEPIC, have sent the attached joint letter of EU stakeholders, listing their concerns regarding the German implementation draft of article 17.
This view is widely shared, including by the European Commission, that the Geman draft legislation is contrary to EU law, Politically, it would set a bad precedent if a EU member State could re-interpret EU directives as they wish.
The attached joint letter was sent to Peter ALMAIER (minister of economy), Horst SEEHOFER (minister of interior), Christina LAMBRECHT (ministor of justice), Monika GRÜTTERS (minister of culture), Helge BRAUN (head of the chancellery)
"Germany's copyright directive transposal project sides with platforms, by reducing their obligations when pirated content is downloaded. In doing so, it goes beyond the text adopted by the European institutions and makes it impossible to licence certain
types of content, explained representatives of music, audiovisual, cinema, photography, publishing, of the press, sport, and cinema."
DATE: 13 November 2020
BVPA made their second submission to the German implementation draft of article 17 into German law. BVPA asks:
In addition, BVPA and CMO Bildkunst made a common submission praising Extended Collective Licensing.
Why does the German implementation draft of Article 17 matters?
Because the German draft is the first implementation text of the Directive. The draft takes a lot of liberty with the EU Directive, it is pro-consumer and pro online-platforms rather than pro-rightholders. As the first text implementing a controversial legislation, it will be imitated by other EU member States.
DATE: 22 October 2020
On 13 October 2020, the German Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection (BMJV) published a draft bill for a law to adapt copyright law to the requirements of the digital internal market.
It is possible to comment on the speaker's draft until 6 November 2020.
Two changes for the better have been spotted in the second draft:
- The new exception for "pastiche" is now a remunerated exception via a CMO
- If the pre-flagging (of content allegedly protected by an exception) was wrong, the online platform must compensate the right holder accordingly
However the new exception for "minor usages" ("Bagatelschranke") - that means for photos with less than 250 KB - is still considered to be for free sharing, with no remuneration of the rightholders.
In the meantime, a coalition of creative content producers has taken a strong stand against the draft implementation proposal - CEPIC's member BVPA is part of the coalition.
"Criticism of the draft was voiced on Wednesday in a statement issued by the umbrella organisation of private audiovisual media "Vaunet", an alliance of associations and institutions of rights holders."
DATE: 1 October 2020
In the context of the implementation of Art.17 of the EU copyright directive, the German Federal Association of Professional Image Providers, BVPA and the Collecting Society for visual arts, VG Bild-Kunst , are striving for a joint and comprehensive licensing agreement with online platforms.
Licensing model instead of upload filters: BVPA and VG Bild-Kunst are aiming for a comprehensive collective licence for the use of professional image material on social media platforms.
DATE: 18 September 2020
The German Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection published a discussion paper on the implementation of Art.17. Read more here ...
All submissions to the German consultations are available at this link here
BVPA provided an answer at the end of July.
Its summary may be found here ... (German)
The Ministry of Justice published a new draft of Art. 17 and 15, which is currently being discussed by the ministries. Among other things, the Ministry seems to have accepted BVPA's proposal to make the exception for memes (caricatures, pastiches and parodies) subject to payment.
CW! sumitted the attached "high-level" letters, in English and German, to the German consultation, as well as in copy to EU Commissioners Vestager and to Commissioner Breton.
It is very unusual for European umbrella organisations to participate in national consultations. The German proposal is so far-reaching that inaction was acceptable.
The German remark on the 250 MG threshold was introduced in the letter
The letter may be downloaded here ...
DATE: 25 June 2020
The Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection has published a discussion draft for a Second Act to adapt copyright law to the requirements of the Digital Single Market.
The draft provides for 2 new legal instruments: Provisions on the liability of upload platforms (Art.17) and collective licences with extended effect (Art 12).
A public consultation is being held until 31 July 2020.
DATE: 14 May 2020
In the context of the consultation process in Germany on the Integration of the EU Copyright Directive into German law BVPA seeks to have picture agencies receive the same scope of rights as Publishers. Letter of April 30th to the German Ministry of Justice may be found here.
"Unfortunately, we were not able to find the urgently needed clarification of the term "publisher" in the draft that was briefly published on the website of the German Ministry of Justice on 1 April 2020, and then withdrawn again. Although book and magazine publishers are referred to by VG Wort [collecting societies for text works], publishers and picture agencies are not included by VG Bild-Kunst [collecting society for visual works], although they were affected by the "Reprobel" decision of the European Court of Justice and the publishers participation ("Verlegerbeteiligung") (decision of the German Federal Constitutional Court (BGH) decisions in the same way as traditional publishers."
DATE: 20 February 2020
The position paper on two essential issues for (not only German) picture agencies, not included in the EU Copyright Directive:
- Neighbouring rights for picture agencies
- Framing
DATE: 22 November 2019
The 7th Copyright Conference of the "Initiative Urheberrecht" on 11 November in Berlin focused on the implementation of the EU Copyright Directive in Germany.
Representatives of CMOs VG Wort (print) and VG Bildkunst (visual) outlined their views on new licensing models and on the implications of a possible introduction of Extended Collective Licensing in German law.
DATE: 5 September 2019
In Germany, as consultation on the implementation of the EU directive is in process, lobbying groups - in favour or against the text, foremost Art.17 on the Value Gap - are getting organised. Press publishers have created a platform called "gerechtes-netz.eu" loaded with slogans such as "This is not OK that profits are more important than freedom of opinion".
DATE: 7 May 2019
Will picture agencies may soon be able to claim again for German secondary licensing?
The EU Copyright Directive may also create opportunities for agencies, as a new regulation on the involvement of publishers would enable member states to return to the participation of publishers - importantly this would extend to picture libraries and agencies - in the distributions of collecting societies such as VG Bild-Kunst.