Spanish Federation of Reporters’ Associations considers unsatisfactory the transposition of the European directive on copyright in the digital market
In a first assessment, and while awaiting the full text of the transposition, FAPE (Spanish Federation of Reporters’ Associations) considers that “the non-obligatory nature of collective management clearly harms authors, as it opens the door to opaque individual agreements between publishers and platforms”.
FAPE considers the transposition of the European directive on copyright in the digital single market, approved today by the Council of Ministers, to be unsatisfactory for the interests of journalists.
The Royal Decree-Law recognises a new related right for press publishers and authors, but leaves each publisher and rights holder free to negotiate with aggregators, either individually or through voluntary collective management.
In a first assessment, and while awaiting the full text of the transposition, FAPE considers that “the non-obligatory nature of collective management clearly harms authors, as it opens the door to opaque individual agreements between publishers and platforms”.
The model of mandatory collective management of such rights allows for a balanced negotiation between the parties concerned, transparency in contracts and the certainty for authors that they will receive the appropriate share set by the European directive for the use of their work by search engines and aggregators.
Without mandatory transparency in contracts, it will be impossible for authors to know fully what adequate remuneration they are entitled to for the use of their works.
We wonder how the government is going to guarantee such transparency as to ensure the “adequate share” of the revenue that authors receive from publishers’ agreements with platforms.
Source HERE IN SPANISH
