If you’re not happy about the copyright protection you are afforded, now may be the time for photographers and stock agencies to speak up.
The European Commission charged with modernizing EU copyright rules has extended its request for comment to March 5, 2014.
They have invited all stakeholders to contribute their ideas and suggestions to this consultation. “Contributions are particularly sought from consumers, users, authors, performers, publishers, producers, broadcasters, intermediaries, distributors and other service providers, Collective Management Organizations, public authorities and Member States.”
Interested parties can go
here to find an extensive list of 80 questions that can be answered online. It is not necessary to supply answers to all of these questions. If you prefer to make you comments in a Word document it can be sent to
znexg-pbclevtug-pbafhygngvba@rp.rhebcn.rh.
For more information about the EU request check out this link
http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/consultations/2013/copyright-rules/index_en.htm.
U.S. Copyright Office
In the U.S. the Copyright Office has announced that it will host two days of public roundtable discussions on potential legislative solutions for orphan works and mass digitization under U.S. copyright law.
The roundtables will take place on March 10-11, 2014, in the Copyright Office Hearing Room, LM-408 of the Madison Building, Library of Congress, 101 Independence Ave. SE, Washington, D.C. 20559. The roundtable discussions will be held from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on both days. For more details about the topics to be discussed see
here.
The Office is also seeking further public comments on orphan works issues. A comment form will be posted on the Copyright Office website at
http://www.copyright.gov/orphan/ no later than March 12, 2014. Comments are due by April 14, 2014, and will be posted on the Copyright Office website.
Copyright Hub In UK
In the UK the
Copyright Hub is moving forward, but the secondary regulations that really explain how it will work won’t be out until later this year.
The Copyright Hub is also struggling to figure out how it will be funded on an ongoing basis. Parliament funded the initial development, but isn’t prepared to fund it on an ongoing basis.
Will Speaking Up Really Make A Difference?
It seems clear that all governments have recognized that there is a problem and a need for change. But, everything seems to move at glacial speed. There is lots of talk and very little action. One of the problems is the governments are trying to come up with something very comprehensive that solves everyone’s problems while what we need is a simple solution that just deals with still images and illustrations.
Image creators will never get the protection they need without speaking up, but expecting legislatures to solve the problem for us may not be the fastest way to move forward.
With that in mind maybe it’s time to look more to private enterprise for the solution. I’ve made a
proposal that should provide better copyright protection with little or no legislative action. Lots of the work required has already been done. If you like any of the ideas feel free to use them in any of the comments you might want to make to the EU or the Copyright Office.