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Parliament Report on EnforcementWhile we appreciate the general line of the "Gallo-report" and its balanced description of the different positions of players involved, authors are in particular concerned about an alternative resolution that does not appropriately recognise the authors' rights. EVA signed together with 5 other organisations in the authors' and creators' field a common statement urging the MEPs to vote in favor of the "Gallo-report". The organisations gather over 680.000 authors. |
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Gallo reportThe MEP Marielle Gallo prepared a balanced draft report on the enforcement of intellectual property right, in particular the copyright for digital uses, in the internal market. Within the 122 amendments proposed are numerous that would water down the necessary level of protection of author's rights by branding unautorised uses, instead of piracy simply as "file-sharing". The EWC and EVA point out the importance of educating the young users and warn that a culture flat rate would prevent the development of use oriented remuneration. |
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Commission Hearing on the governance of collective managementWith it's recently published work program the Commission announced to work on a frame directive on collective management. The intention is to create a EEA wide frame of regulations on governance and transparency applicable to collective rights managers. As was pointed out in the hearing, the EVA societies take this issues very serious and comply with a high standard of transparency. They have set up their code of conduct published on this site. They also follow the CISAC professional rules. Prof Dr. Gerhard Pfennig, managing Director of VG Bild-Kunst, urged the Commssion to take care that such regulations apply to all bodies managing rights collectively in order to prevent unfair competition. Collecting societies would need a point of reference when obliged to cooperate with other managers that do not have to comply with the same level of regulations. Christophe Depreter, Managing Director of SABAM, reminded the Commission that the visual arts societies have created back in 2002 already a one-stop-shop for world wide digitial rights.
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Google SettlementGOOGLE SETTLEMENT
On 7 September the European Commission held a hearing on the pending Google book search settlement. The sector of authors of fine art was represented through OLA the international licensing body set up by EVA members.
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CIAGP Resolution on Resale RightThe unanimously adopted resolution addresses three important issues on resale right: 1) the right should be inheritable like all other copyrights and without any exception. The European Parliament and Council Directive 84/2001 allowed member state's introducing the right for the first time to exclude works of deceased artists for a limited period in order to adapt market structures to the new right. In principle this optional exception should expire at the end of 2009. However, the countries concerned, UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Austria and Malta made use of the optional prolongation for further 2 years despite the fact that the introduction of the right went very smoothly. 2) Article 14ter of the Berne Convention should be made compulsory. Until today the Berne Convention does not oblige all member states to introduce the right, it is only an option. In order to encourage countries without the right to its introdution the inlander treatment requires for reciprocity. However, it this rules turned out to be no sufficient incentive for introduction of the right. Countries with large and growing international art markets, such as U.S.A., Switzerland and several Asian countries still do not provide for the right, thus depriving many artists and heirs from this important source of income. 3) compulsory collective management In countries where the right may only be managed by a collecting societies the collection runs very effective and the international revenues are well exchanged and reach authors cross borders. |
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NEW CIAGP PresidentAt the annual CIAGP congress which was held on 16th and 17th September 2009 in Madrid, the Spanish painter and sculptor, Andrés Nagel was elected by unanimous vote as President for a mandate of 2 years, once renewable for further 2 years. The artist lives and works in San Sebastian and made an international carreer with numerous exhibitions world-wide. CIAGP members thanked the leaving President, the Mexican painter Julio Curasco Breton for his professional and devoted work of the past 4 years. CIAGP is traditionally presided by an artist. |
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In the frame of the EC's initiative to facilitate the creation of an European digital library EVA expresses its views on the issue of works whose authors and/or rightsholders are untraceable.
EVA Position on so-called Orphan Works EVA appreciates the EC initiative to facilitating the creation of the European Digital Library - a project which envisages to enable access for the public to Europe's rich culture including many works of fine art and photography. Libraries, archives and museums made the observation that for some material which they have in their possession rights are difficult or even impossible to clear because the authors and other rightsholders are untraceable. EVA recognises that in such cases the adminsitrative and financial burden for the users can be large. However, it questions to what extent fine arts a really concerned. A high level of due diligence search regardless of the quality of the works or status of the author is indispensible. Cut-off ages are not an appropriate tool because they are an unjustified reduction of protection terms. Special attention should be given to works embedded in books and magazines and rights should be cleared independently. Collective management societies could play a further role and provide services to facilitate the search or if mandated by legal provisions. |
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A common letter with authors' and performers' organisations was signed today to address MEPs in connection with the draft report on "Cultural Industries in the context with the Lisbon Strategy" by MEP Guy Bono
Today EVA signed a letter together with other European and International organisations representing authors and performers to emphasise the important role of creators to build and maintain Europe's unique cultural richness. The letter urges MEPs to vote on amendments to the draft report by MEP Guy Bono on "Cultural Industries in the context of the Lisbon Strategy" (2007/2153(INI)) accordingly.
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"Authors of fine arts and photography in a globalising world of cultures" - EVA 10 years birthday was celebrated in Brussels
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EVA celebrates its 10th birthday with a conference under the title "Authors of fine arts and photography in a globalizing world of cultures"
EVA was founded in 1997 with an office in Brussels. Since then a lot of work and exchange have been done. Together with all founding members and the new members and observers the EVA office organises a conference under the title: "Authos of fine arts and photography in a globalizing world of cultures" |
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Commissioner Figel opened the Copyright summit organized by CISAC.
Ján Figel, the European Commissoiner for education, training and youth, opened the debate on 30th May during the Copyright summit in Brussels with an address explaining what Europe can do for culture - and culture for Europe. Find his speech here |
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The Fondacion Arte et Derecho published a manifest on authors' rights and against abusive contracts. |
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Logo gives a graphic interpretatiion to the voice of all Europeans. |
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The MEDIA 2007 programme will provide €755 million boost to Europe's film industry over the next seven years. MEDIA 2007 defined three priorities: increased use if digital technologies; increased cooperation at all levels; easier access to financing especially for SME.The new MEDIA programme was launched during the BERLINALE in February. |
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The amended Norwegian copyright law is effective since 1 st January 2007.The most important aspects of the implementation are:
BONO is the entitled society to collect and distribute money from resale right.
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Today the amended Belgian law on resale right has been published in the official Belgain gazette Le Moniteur Belge/Belgisch StaatsbladFind here the text of the amended resale right published on 23rd of January 2007. |
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French artists and their organisations express their concerns regarding the project of the amended resale right in France
Please read the press release: "Les auteurs des arts visuels dénoncent le projet de décret relatif au droit de suite" |
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EVA wishes all members, observers, friends, colleagues and visitors a happy new year and will celebrates it's 10th birthday in 2007. |
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The Culture First! Coalition groups 15 organisations of different categories of right holders, including authors, performers, actors, journalists, music publishers and record and audiovisual producers.The Culture First! Coalition's letter to European Commission president Barroso. |
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Obituary Ben Vandooren
Ben Vandoorne was one of the first photo reporters who at an early stage realised the importance of copyright protection for their profession. Moreover he was clear-sighted enough to emphasis the interests of Belgian photo reporters organised within SOFAM - a collecting society he had founded - also in international contexts: in order to support the developing team work in Europe he early sought co-operation with those collecting societies for arts and photography having been founded in the 80s. With his professional knowledge Ben Vandoorne invaluably contributed to the copyright development for visual artists within the EU member states, but also on the level of Community legislation. He was an intriguing character, friendly and helpful, but also assertive and self-confident in representing the interests of his organisation's members. He was a distinctive friend whom we will always remember.
Bonn, September 2006 Prof. Dr Gerhard Pfennig, EVA president
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The study published on 13 november conludes that the whole sector is very valuable to reaching the Lisbon goals and is therefore a tool to redress the relation between the industries and the culture sector. The document highlights the direct and the indirect contribution of the cultural and creative sectors towards the Lisbon Agenda. |
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Intercultural Dialogue Conference in Brussels
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Since today the amended resale right is implemented in Germany |
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Culture First!/Culture d'abord! alliance was created by the artistic community and the content industry in october 2006 to defend the right to be compensated for private copying.
The Culture First coalition:
Read the full declaration Copie privée: menace sur la création
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EVA and CISAC conference on “The situation of Visual Arts collecting societies in Central and Eastern Europe” took place on 21 and 22 September 2006 in Budapest.21 collective management societies met for exchange of know-how and best practice models as well as to compare the situation of the authors' rights and the visual arts collecting societies in the different represented countries. In depth country reports allowed to draw a clear overview of the different national legislations concerning ‘droit de suite' and the implementation of Directive 84/2001. The panel contributions discussed rights and exceptions for museums and educational institutions following the implementation of directive 29/2001 in different European countries. After the presentation of OnLineArt (http://onlineart.info/) that offers the administration of Internet licenses in one-stop-shop other new approaches for the administration of remuneration rights such as reprography, cable and satellite, public lending and renting were presented and discussed.
Related speeches and contributions:
EVA working group on 'Resale right - droit de suite'
France - exceptions for museums implementing Directive 29/2001
Germany - Museums: Licensing and enforcement of primary uses following the implementation of EC Directive 29/2001
Administration of Internet licenses - OnLineArt
Improving international cooperation - public Lending Right and Renting
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