CISAC, which covers member authors’ societies in 121 countries, has urged the European Parliament to address the value gap in their copyright reform proposals.

In an open letter to MEPs, CISAC’s leadership said: “The proposals by the European Commission, currently being discussed in the European Parliament are among the most important copyright reforms of the last 20 years in Europe. They are a first step in the right direction, offering a historic opportunity to bring fairer remuneration for creators and drive economic growth and jobs in the creative industries.

“In particular, Europe now has a chance to address the ‘transfer of value or ‘value gap’ which is caused by loopholes in the law allowing some of the world’s largest digital platforms to deny fair remuneration to millions of creators. To do this effectively, it is essential for the legislation to ensure fair remuneration by user uploaded content (UUC) platforms such as YouTube. EU law should not be a shield to allow such platforms to make vast revenues from creative works while not fairly rewarding the creators.”

The letter added: “The proposed copyright reform puts Europe in a unique position of international leadership. As creators representing regions around the world – Africa, Asia, North and South America and Europe - we are watching events in Brussels with great hope. We know that our governments are also monitoring the situation very closely and may follow up with similar laws.”

The European Parliament’s legal affairs Committee (JURI) is set to vote on amendments at the end of March, with a vote of the full Parliament expected to follow. The proposed directive would then go back to the European Commission and EU Member States to be adopted into law.

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