20,000 creators ask EU to close loopholes

On Monday this week, the EU's Vice-President for the Digital Single Market, Andrus Ansip, received a petition with 20,000 signatures, in which rights holders ask the EU to require sharing platforms to pay them when the services have income from their artistic and creative work. 714 of the signatures were Norwegian.

The European Commission’s work on the reform of European copyright is in its final phase, and composers and lyricists across Europe are now getting involved in the hope that their major concerns will be addressed. In a meeting on Monday this week, a petition with accompanying signatures was presented to Andrus Ansip, the EU’s Vice-President for the Digital Single Market. The meeting was attended by a number of artists, as well as representatives of GESAC (the “TONO” companies’ lobbying organisation) and EVA (European Visual Artists).

714 Norwegian names
Among the 20,000 signatures were 714 Norwegian names. In other words, the response to TONO's call on our websites, Facebook pages and Twitter profile on August 2 has yielded results. In addition to contributing their own signatures, many also shared the news on social media, for which we are very grateful. Among those who have signed are TONO's chairman Bendik Hofseth, Bjørn Eidsvåg, Daniel Kvammen, Jan Garbarek, Ina Wroldsen, Sigurd Wongraven, Nicolay Sereba, Vincent Dery and Cato Sundberg (Donkeyboy), to name a few. You can see the full list here. (pdf, opens in new window). From other European countries you will find names such as David Guetta, Imogen Heap, Ennio Morricone and Andrea Bocelli.

Transfer of value
– It is about the concept of “transfer of value”, which in short is about the fact that the so-called “Safe Harbour” exception means that providers of services that facilitate content sharing earn significant amounts, including from advertisements related to the sharing of copyrighted content without the services being obliged to take copyright responsibility for the content, and thus pay the copyright holders a share of their income, says Cato Strøm, CEO of TONO. – The letter signed by the 20,000 copyright holders states that the EU’s ongoing work on copyright is a unique opportunity for Europe to rebalance the market so that creators can also have the opportunity to get a “fair deal” in this market, Strøm continues.

Letters, signatures and background information

• Read the text of the petition here: http://www.authorsocieties.eu/uploads/Make%20the%20Internet%20Fair%20for%20Creators%2011.07.2016%20.pdf
• See all the signatures here: http://www.authorsocieties.eu/uploads/List%20of%20all%20signatories%20of%20the%20letter.pdf
• Read about "Transfer of value" here: http://www.authorsocieties.eu/uploads/GESAC%20transfer%20of%20value%20infographic.pdf
• More about "Transfer of value": http://www.authorsocieties.eu/uploads/English%20-%20Use%20of%20cultural%20content%20online%20-%20transfer%20of%20value.pdf

For more information:
Cato Strøm, managing director of TONO, mob. 922 16,319, e-mail: cato.strom@tono.no
Willy Martinsen, Communications Manager, mobile 909 65,254, email: willy.martinsen@tono.no