The European Parliament Committee on Legal Affairs today backed proposals to update the EU’s copyright rules for the digital age. The S&D Group managed to secure significant improvements to the proposals originally put forward by the European Commission, particularly on ensuring fair remuneration for authors and performers. 

 

 

 

“We have fought hard to ensure that performers and authors are fairly remunerated for their works. These new rules will make it easier for them to sell their content throughout the European Union by harmonising rules across member states.  We have ensured that authors will be remunerated both for direct and indirect revenues coming through use of their work and ensured that trade unions and other representative organisations will be able to initiate dispute resolution mechanisms on their part.”

 

 

 

“These proposals are supposed to bring the EU’s copyright laws into the 21st Century. Since the EU’s laws were last updated we have seen a huge increase in the amount of content online and huge changes to how people consume this content. We need updated rules that strike the right balance between the rights of users, performers and artists.”