Public Lecture
Friday 31st March 2023, 17:30 (BST); BG110
The event is free to attend, but registration is required. Please e-mail Prof. Dinusha Mendis at dmendis@bournemouth.ac.uk to book your place.
Abstract
In the cultural industry, the imbalance between the turnover of online streaming of works and the revenues of authors and performers (creators) is a well-known issue. One important factor behind this phenomenon is the weaker position of creators when licensing or transferring their rights for exploitation in return for remuneration. Furthermore, as copyright contracts are usually of long duration, the inadequacy of negotiated terms can be exacerbated over time by changes in the works’ reputation and value.
Two different but not alternative legal approaches address the problem. The first consists of introducing mandatory contractual provisions strengthening the position of creators such as transparency obligations, revocation rights or other similar limitations, as well as general principles aimed at securing fair remuneration in exploitation contracts of creators. This line of intervention has been applied for instance in Germany in 2002. The second approach consists of intervening in the market structure by releasing creators from their gatekeepers in the market (that is, publishers and producers) as far as remuneration is concerned. This is achieved by providing creators with a direct and unwaivable remuneration right vis-à-vis the economic players who make content available to end users. The Swiss legislature, for instance, moved in this direction in 2019 for the online exploitation of audiovisual works, also imposing that creators’ remuneration rights be mandatorily negotiated and enforced by CMOs.
This lecture will examine the two models also looking at the implementation process of Article 18 of Directive (EU) 2019/790 on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, which leaves Member States free to adopt both approaches, thus regrettably leading to fragmentation at European level
Valentina Moscon is Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition in Munich, Germany. Her research focuses on IP law and mostly on international, European and comparative copyright law. In the last years she has worked on various aspects of the modernization of the copyright law, including exceptions and limitations, copyright for academic authors, access to science, press publishers rights, and liability of online intermediaries. Among the collaborative projects, mention may be made of the International Instrument on Permitted Uses in Copyright Law and the Position Statement on the EU Data Act. Valentina is regularly engaged in policy briefs and consultations. She has been a qualified Italian attorney since 2007.
