Press Release: Pragmatic Support for the Juri Mandate

Yesterday, the legal affairs committee (JURI) of the European Parliament adopted the report on copyright in the Digital Single Market.
This is a pragmatic signal for book, journals and educational content publishers, as the text approved presents a number of challenges, notably in relation to the 3 mandatory exceptions that the Directive will introduce.
Publishers always agreed on the objective that teachers, students, cultural heritage institutions (CHIs) or researchers must be able to use content they have legally acquired wherever they are in Europe and to enjoy all new opportunities opened by ICT in a context providing certainty to all. For this purpose, it is important that the educational exception (Article 4) be restricted to the use of extracts of books – which is only implicit in the text, thus implying uncertainty for its implementation in Member States – and ensure that rightholders are enabled to offer innovative digital services through licenses and remunerated for this. The text adopted by the JURI committee addresses these issues to some extent, though with some shortcomings.
JURI members also adopted provisions on text and data mining, preservation by Cultural Heritage Institutions, out of commerce works and the remuneration of authors which raise issues with publishers.
Finally, they adopted Article 12 which allows Member States to decide whether both authors and publishers can share the compensation due when a book is used under an exception. Publishers are equally impacted when the books they publish are used under exceptions and this has been recognised in a vast majority of EU Member States, either when the remuneration is dealt under an exception or through licensing (voluntary, extended or compulsory). This should also be made possible for the future. The text adopted yesterday is acknowledging the principle, but still needs improving during the legislative procedure.
Next step for the EP is to obtain a mandate to negotiate with the Council and the Commission, at the next plenary session in July and then to start the negotiations in September.
For the upcoming negotiations, FEP would like to encourage the institutions to maintain a legal framework that encourages rightholders to innovate in business models, licensing, services and products, preserves the economic balance of the book chain and acknowledges the true value of creation.
The Federation of European representing 29 national associations of books, journals, educational content, in all formats and is thus the voice of European publishing.

For more information abergman@fep-fee.eu or 00-32-477-33-65-76