ENGLISH TRANSLATION
Here are the important points to be retained from our common reflections of 25/09:
Related to the intervention of Sylvie Fodor, CEPIC :
Each Member State must, on the basis of the directive, transpose it into national law. Each one can, within reason, change or specify a certain number of elements in relation to the directive. For the moment, only Germany has proposed a text.
The general objectives that the French transposition must meet: regulating the digital ecosystem and rebalancing the sharing of value for the benefit of the beneficiaries.
The current directive (art 2-6, 17) gives a restrictive definition of providers of online content sharing services: only platforms on which content is uploaded, Google images is not concerned and specific treatment more advantageous for start-ups / it remains vague on the notion of best efforts to be made by platforms to obtain authorisation from rightholders, block access to works or prevent future uploads. /
The German project seems worrying in particular concerning the 250kb threshold for images (below this threshold, images would not be paid for). For example, all the photos on Facebook are below this threshold. It proposes as a solution the extended collective licence (a principle which exists only in the Nordic countries): we need to think about whether this alternative is the best, and by whom it should be carried (OGC? trade unions who create their own management body?).
It is important that the following be indicated in the transposition: the obligation of the presence of metadata, the obligation for the platforms to give access to the rights holders free of charge to the information relating to the televised images, etc.
Related to the intervention of Clément Renaudin, ALPA :
Difference in issues between audio-visual / cinema and photography: the former wanting to block rather, the photography sector wanting to monetise the distribution of images.
ALPA could take charge of the photography sector but cannot for the moment manage the monetisation.
Technical obstacles: to date, the adaptability of technical tools (for example, the prints of works that have to be redone for facebook every year) between the representatives of the rights holders and the platforms. However, recent platforms now offer a form of retro-adaptability of tools.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
FRENCH (ORIGINAL)
Voici les points importants à retenir de nos réflexions communes du 25/09 :
Liés à l’intervention de Sylvie Fodor, CEPIC :
Liés à l’intervention de Clément Renaudin, ALPA :
Sylvie Fodor nous avait parlé des négociations en cours entre les représentants des agences photo allemandes (BVPA) et Bidlkunst (équivalent de l’adagp en Allemagne), lesquels souhaiteraient demander aux plateformes un pourcentage de leur CA qi serait redistribué à tous leurs membres (c’est aussi la propositions des ogc ici en France, reste à en savoir davantage sur les modes de redistribution), vous trouverez ci-dessous le communiqué de presse de BVPA transmis par Sylvie Fodor
28.09.2020
Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and many others operate an extremely profitable business model, as they generate high advertising revenues with relatively low costs for content. The current copyright amendment now obliges platforms to take responsibility for third party - often professional - content uploaded by private users. This is also intended to ensure, for example, the proper licensing of high-quality visual material. In order to make this possible efficiently, the Federal Association of Professional Image Providers (BVPA) and the Collecting Society Bild-Kunst (VG Bild-Kunst) are striving for a joint and comprehensive licensing offer for platforms. These comprehensive collective licences would make the so-called "upload filters" for the area of rights control obsolete.
VG Bild-Kunst and BVPA have been in intensive exchange for several months now, with the aim of offering social media platforms comprehensive licenses for the use of professionally created, high-quality images by private users of the platforms from a single source.
Not all details have been clarified yet, but the common desire to create a holistic solution for the licensing of professional image material by private users unites both organisations. Such a licence could cover the entire international range of images through a single contract, as both VG Bild-Kunst and the picture agencies also represent photographers and picture agencies outside Germany. The licence would even, as already provided for in the draft law on platform liability, extend to so-called "outsiders", i.e. photographers and agencies who have not expressly agreed to the agreement. This would provide comprehensive legal certainty for the platforms and their private users.
The model of collective licensing is flexible for individual authors: if individual right holders (authors* or picture agencies) do not wish to join this collective licence, they can indicate to the platforms which works should be excluded from it and therefore may not be used. Facebook has already developed an application called "Rights Manager" for this purpose.
The joint licensing model of BVPA and VG Bild-Kunst would have no effect on the terms of use of the platforms, which regulate, inter alia, which rights a user of the platform grants to the platform in respect of his own self-created photographs.
Last week, VG Bild-Kunst and BVPA issued a joint statement to the ministries concerned with the draft law (Copyright Service Provider Act regulating platform responsibility) announcing their possible cooperation and calling on the ministries to draft the rules in such a way that they do not impede image licensing.
"Licensing takes precedence over filtering," says Urban Pappi, managing director of VG Bild-Kunst. "We think it is right that professional authors whose high-quality image material makes a significant contribution to increasing the attractiveness of the platforms should be rewarded in future".
Torsten Hoch, chairman of the BVPA board, underlines: "Our member agencies do not want to stand in the way of private use of their images. However, in our view, appropriate remuneration is a matter of course, because professional image material enhances the social media platforms and thus contributes significantly to the platforms' revenues".
The joint statement of BVPA and VG Bild-Kunst can be found below as a linked PDF for reading: https://bvpa.org/wp-c0nt3nt5/up10ad5/2020/09/Stellungnahme_VGBK_BVPA_ECL_2020-09-28.pdf .