01/04/2008

Until the closing date of February 29, the European Commission received contributions to its public consultation on the "Communication from the Commission on Creative Content Online in the Single Market", published at the start of January 2008. Brussels wants to encourage the implementation of an effective business model, as well as the development of transnational structures that supply online content.

The aim is to draw up a strategy that will complement the one already put in place by the initiative i2010, which focuses on four horizontal actions of particular importance that thus need analysing at EU level: the availability of creative content online; multi-territory licensing; the interoperability and transparency of digital rights management; and the fight against piracy.

The Communication is based on another public consultation carried out in 2006, as well as on a study ordered by the Commission (“Interactive Content and Convergence”), which shows that the online content industry in the Europe of the 25 will see an almost fivefold increase in its revenue between 2005 and 2010, reaching a total of €8.3bn. The figure speaks for itself but the Commission wanted to hear more opinions on the matter.

National authorities from 12 countries (the Czech, Portuguese and Danish Culture Ministries), around 200 associations and NGOs (UK Film Council, EGEDA, EBU, the UK Premier League) and over 50 companies (Philips, Telefónica, Yahoo,) expressed their views. But the major players are not the only ones to have participated in this consultation; smaller groups and associations such as the European Blind Union, the German political party Die Linke and the Italian Association for Producers of Pornography also made their voice heard, as did the hundreds of citizens who sent in their suggestions to the Commission.

(Translated from Spanish)