Press Release - European publishers welcome the joint declaration of the French and Italian Ministers of culture on copyright in the Digital Single Market

The commitment of the French and the Italian Ministers of culture, Audrey Azoulay and Dario Franceschini, in support of a balanced and forward looking position on copyright in the Digital Single Market has been confirmed in the joint declaration they signed today in Paris. The declaration follows the similar statement signed by France and Spain on February, 20th at the end of the XXV Franco-Spanish Summit in Malaga and shows the common concern and approach by many European countries.

Henrique Mota, President of the Federation of European Publishers, said: “European publishers welcome that key European countries like Italy and France join authors and publishers in supporting the role of copyright in the digital era as the legal basis for creativity and a prerequisite of pluralism, cultural diversity and vital source of European cultural industries. FEP and its members hope that more EU countries will join the declaration presented today, and invites France and Italy to promote these principles to all the other Member States.”

“This joint declaration – the President of the Italian Publishers Association Federico Motta said – makes it clear that copyright is the key factor enabling innovation in digital content and defending copyright also means supporting the development of the digital single market and freedom of expression.”

Vincent Montagne, President of the French Publishers Association, added that “it is very relevant to promote licensing solutions, especially when current systems addressing users’ needs already work well.”

“We appreciate very much – Henrique Mota continued – the holistic approach of the declaration, covering all the most important subjects under discussion at European level: the importance of the remuneration of authors and publishers at the same time, the role of IT intermediaries, the way licensing solutions can serve digital development better than copyright exceptions.”

You can find the PDF version of the press release here.

Joint declaration in Italian