European composers and lyricists are calling on the EU to stop forced buy-outs in US-based video on demand services.
/ 15/12/2022 / Willy MartinsenRecently, European songwriters and composers met with members of the European Parliament to express their views on their concerns about the growing phenomenon of free-purchase and "work for hire" agreements which are imposed on them by the major video on demand services based outside the EU.
It is the organizations GESAC, the collective management organizations' voice in Brussels, and ECSA, an organization for composers and songwriters, that are now demands that the EU take action to stop this practice.
Buy-out agreements force composers to give up all or part of their copyright revenues. They thus lose the opportunity to receive future royalties for the use of their work in films produced by VOD services outside the EU. They also lose the exercise of their moral rights, and ownership of their work in cases where "work made for hire" agreements are used.
– Those who create the music in films should have the right to receive a share of all future value creation in such productions. It is extremely unfair to the creators if only the producer should earn money throughout the entire life cycle of the musical work. It is crucial that regulations are put in place in Europe that ensure that European music creators are not forced into agreements according to the American tradition, where rights are bought out, says Inger Elise Mey at TONO. She is head of Online Media, but also represents TONO in an expert group at GESAC that works on copyright issues, including buy-out issues.
TONO has previously also written about buy outs:
https://www.tono.no/opphavsrett-til-salgs/
https://www.tono.no/filmkomponister-under-press/
https://www.tono.no/kollektiv-forvaltning-til-fordel-for-bade-musikkskapere-og-brukere/
Véronique Desbrosses, is the general manager of Gesac, the collective management organizations' mouthpiece in Brussels, which is behind the claim to the EU together with ECSA.
“Free-to-play agreements imposed on composers by VOD platforms have become a growing phenomenon. This is linked to the dominance of US-based services in the market, bringing this harmful practice to Europe. To circumvent the requirement for fair compensation in Europe, US-based VOD platforms rely on US laws and the jurisdiction of US courts. Intervention by EU decision-makers is absolutely necessary to put an end to this injustice and ensure that internal market rules are applied to all operators,” says Véronique Desbrosses, CEO of Gesac, the Brussels-based voice of collective management organisations.
The organization ECSA, an umbrella for composer organizations, also reacts strongly to the practice.
“This is a question of fairness as it is very difficult for such composers to refuse to enter into such buy-out agreements due to the risk of being blacklisted. The options are either to accept the terms of a contract, no matter how harmful they are. They thus give up the remuneration they should be entitled to receive or lose the opportunity to work on a project for a popular and dominant VOD platform and risk never working for them again. We need EU-wide rules to ensure fairness and create real choices for creators,” says Helienne Lindvall, President of the ECSA organization.
Manel Santisteban, an award-winning Spanish television and film composer, also speaks out in connection with the campaign.
“My colleagues and I witness every day the buy-out contracts demanded by US-based VOD platforms, which deprive us of the rights and remuneration we deserve. In a global audiovisual market, remuneration from different countries is increasingly important to get a fair share of the successes of our works. European policymakers have a duty to prevent buy-out contracts and ensure that appropriate and proportionate remuneration becomes a reality for European composers,” he says.
The case has been covered in a number of industry media outlets internationally:
https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2022/11/07/gesac-ecsa-eu-lobbying-vod-platforms/
https://creativeindustriesnews.com/2022/11/gesac-and-ecsa-ask-the-eu-to-end-the-practice-of-buy-out-and-work-made-for-hire-contracts-from-vod-platforms/
https://rightstech.com/2022/11/gesac-ecsa-lobby-to-end-vod-platforms-buy-out-practices/