03/12/2012 - EU commissioners are meeting on December 5 to examine initiatives that the Eurpoean Commission might adopt concerning copyright issues

On December 5, on the initiative of European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, the College of Commissioners will meet to examine initiatives that the Commission may adopt in the field of copyright. The Society of Audiovisual Authors (SAA) has launched a petition aiming to support Europe's creators and authors' rights, which has been signed by several prominent film personalities including Ken Loach, Wim Wenders, Mike Leigh, Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Marco Bellocchio, among others.

The petition states that respecting authors' rights is urgent as European creators are currently facing obstacles to maintain them: "Their influence is being contested, their scope is under attack, their collective management criticized."

According to the text: "The fight against copyright, and against the right of authors to live from their art and receive fair compensation, forms the focus of an entire coalition: namely lobbyists from the leading companies on the Net who seek to exempt themselves both from their tax commitments to member states and their obligations towards cultural diversity and creation; certain consumer lobbies who consider the total and immediate satisfaction of their constituency a necessity, regardless of the negative, harmful impact for cultural industries, jobs in culture and for the funding of future creativity; European administrative departments and even commissioners who confine authors' rights and cultural diversity to old boundaries, thus irremediably excluding them from the digital world."

The petition can be signed here.