News
 ARROW and ARROW Plus revamp their website
ARROW, Accessible Registries of Rights Information and Orphan Works towards Europeana, is a project of a consortium of European national libraries, publishers and collective management organisations also representing writers through their main European associations and national organisations.
ARROW aims at becoming the European system for the identification of rights, rightholders, rights status of a copyright work including whether it is orphan or out of print. This will facilitate the realising of the ambitious project of digitizing and making available the European cultural heritage. The system may also be used outside Europe to obtain information on rights, rightholders and rights status in copyright works
ARROW Plus, in which the European Writers’ Council is a partner, is a Best Practice Network project selected under the European Commission’s Competitiveness and innovation framework programme, running from 1 April 2011 till 30 September 2013. ARROW Plus builds on and further implements the ARROW system, which it aims at refining after the piloting phase in Germany, France, Spain and United Kingdom.
The objectives are also to increase the number of countries in which ARROW is used; and broadening the types of works for which it is used to include visual material. Under ARROW Plus a legal entity will be constituted to prepare for the implementation of the business model. The project contributes to the goal of the European Commission and European Parliament to make European cultural heritage legally accessible through an innovative way of establishing rights status in and facilitating rights clearance of copyright works.
For ARROW Plus information material and more details about ARROW:
http://www.arrow-net.eu/what-arrow-plus
1-3 December PETRA congress on Literary Translation in Europe
The PETRA congress on Literary Translation in Europe will take place in Brussels, from 1 to 3 December 2011.
Organisations active in the field of literary translation in Europe, at national and at transnational level, acting individually or as part of a network, are invited to meet and to work on the development of a European plan of action in support of literary translation and of literary translators.
The following themes will be dealt with:
· the economic and social status of the literary translator
· the cultural situation of literary translation and visibility
· education and training for the literary translator
· editorial policies and relationship with the market
· copyright and e-status
· literary translation in Europe: culture, politics, cultural policies
The results of the assembly will be published in a substantial report. It will include, on the one hand, a report of the discussions arising in the various workgroups and, on the other, a number of recommendations addressed to regional, national and European policymakers.
For more information:
http://www.petra2011.eu/
http://www.petra2011.eu/congress
Digital Agenda: the Commission encourages digitisation of EU culture to help boost growth
European Commission – Press release - Brussels, 28th October 2011
The European Commission has adopted a Recommendation asking EU Member States to step up their efforts, pool their resources and involve the private sector in digitising cultural material. This is essential to make European cultural heritage more widely available and to boost growth in Europe's creative industries. The digitised material should be made available through Europeana, Europe's digital library, archive and museum (see www.europeana.eu).
The Recommendation challenges Member States to develop solid plans and build partnerships to place 30 million objects in Europeana by 2015 compared to the 19 million available today; to get more in-copyright and out-of-commerce material online; and to adapt national legislation and strategies to ensure the long-term preservation of digital materials.
The Recommendation builds on the conclusions of the Comité des Sages (high level reflection group) on bringing Europe's cultural heritage online, established in 2010 (see IP IP/11/17).
Adoption of measures to support cultural and creative industries and ensuring a sustainable model for financing Europeana are among the goals of the Digital Agenda for Europe (see IP/10/581, MEMO/10/199 and MEMO/10/200).
Digital Agenda: Recommendation on the digitisation of cultural material and its preservation on line - frequently asked questions
Parallel to the Recommendation, the EC MEMO/11/745 published on 28 October 2011 answers the following questions from the perspective of the current EU policies:
· What is digitisation?
· Why is digitisation of cultural works important?
· A Recommendation on this was already issued in 2006. Why do we need a new one?
For more information:
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Digital Agenda: Recommendation on the digitisation of cultural material and its preservation on line - frequently asked questions Reference: MEMO/11/745 Date: 28/10/2011 |
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/11/745&format=HTML&aged=0&language=en&guiLanguage=en
Digital Agenda: encouraging digitisation of EU culture to help boost growth
For the Press release in 22 languages:
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/11/1292&format=HTML&aged=0&language=en&guiLanguage=en
The winners of the 2011 European Union Prize for Literature announced at the Frankfurt Book Fair
Brussels, 11 October 2011 – The winners of the 2011 European Union Prize for Literature, which recognises the best new or emerging authors in the EU, were announced at the Frankfurt Book Fair. The winners are: Kalin Terziyski (Bulgaria), Tomáš Zmeškal (Czech Republic), Kostas Hatziantoniou (Greece), Ófeigur Sigurðsson (Iceland), Inga Zolude (Latvia) Iren Nigg (Liechtenstein), Immanuel Mifsud (Malta), Andrej Nikolaidis (Montenegro), Rodaan Al Galidi (Netherlands), Jelena Lengold (Serbia), Ciler Ilhan (Turkey), and Adam Foulds (United Kingdom). See below for details of the winning works.
Each winner gets € 5 000 and the opportunity to have their book translated into other languages to boost its cross-border appeal.
For the European Commission Press release, see our special section on the EUPL
EWC co-signs Memorandum of Understanding at ceremony chaired by Commissioner Barnier to increase the number of out-of-commerce books being made available again
On 20.09.2011 Commissioner Barnier presided today over the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in which public libraries, authors, publishers, and their collective management organisations have agreed to give European libraries and similar institutions the possibility to digitise and make available on line out-of-commerce books and learned journals.
This non-legislative initiative is complementary to the Commission’s recently adopted legislative proposal for a Directive on orphan works. Both initiatives are important to further the development of European digital libraries and to preserve and disseminate European cultural heritage, while recognising the authors’ moral rights and their right to remuneration.
For the European Commission Press Release on the Memorandum of Understanding:
http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/barnier/headlines/news/2011/09/20110920_en.htm
FAQs
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/11/619&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
20 September photos at the signing ceremony, Berlaymont building, European Commission, Brussels:
http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/photo/photoDetailsNews.cfm?sitelang=en&rid=6540#0
Rightsholders’ Organisations and Libraries sign ground-breaking MoU on Out of Commerce Works
IFRRO-EWC-EFJ-FEP-STM-EPC Joint Press Release. 09/2011.
The representatives of authors, publishers and collective management organisations for text- and image-based works are proud to be signatories of the Out of Commerce Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), enabled through a dialogue with libraries, and facilitated by the European Commission. The MoU recognises that the right to authorise the use of an Out of Commerce work is vested in the copyright holder (authors and/ or publishers) and that voluntary solutions with the appropriate support of collective management can be the way forward.
The European Writers’ Council (EWC), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the European Visual Artists (EVA) for the authors and the Federation of European Publishers (FEP), the European Publishers’ Council (EPC) and the International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers (STM) for the publishers, acknowledged the MoU as important step in the digitisation and making available to the public of Europe’s cultural heritage.
The MoU is an excellent example of what can be achieved through collaborative efforts by the stakeholders concerned. The International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations (IFRRO) and its RRO members, the collectives in the publishing sector, and EVA representing the more specialised collectives for visual art, stated that they are well placed to offer appropriate collective management and licensing solutions to enable works which the authors and publishers have decided to no longer commercialise and which they wish to allow libraries to make available to the public through their digitisation programmes.
We wholeheartedly support the goal of enabling the digitisation of Europe’s heritage with the benefits it brings to society in general and to cultural and creative sectors. Publishers themselves are digitising their own backlists to enable wider access. For other works, to be effective, agreements must be negotiated on a voluntary basis amongst parties concerned with appropriate support to collective licensing schemes.
Respect for the authors’ moral rights is particularly important in the case of Out of Commerce works. There may be a variety of reasons for not making a work available to the public and it is their right to determine whether or how this should be done.
The MoU demonstrates the determination of stakeholders to put in place the means to enable mass digitisation of Europe’s cultural heritage by libraries and other publicly accessible cultural institutions. The authors, publishers and collective management organisations who are signatories to the MoU will do their utmost to make sure that the process respects the principles of the MoU and is as smooth and efficient as possible.
RROs can play an important role in enabling the use of Out of Commerce works. The MoU acknowledges this and comes to clear recommendations, including those for accompanying legislation. The initiative is to be welcomed. The MoU is also in line with the planned German project regarding the use of Out of Commerce works, which was jointly developed by the rightholders, the libraries and the German collective management organizations VG WORT und VG Bild-Kunst,” says Dr. Robert Staats, CEO Verwertungsgesellschaft WORT.
“Digitised images are a subject of increasing importance. 64% of digitized objects in the European Library EUROPEANA are visual works comprising items of great diversity, such as photography, maps, art work and others. EVA appreciates the commitment expressed in the MoU to respect authors’ rights in general and those of visual authors in particular.” says Christiane Ramonbordes, President of EVA.
“The MoU recognises the central role of authors, enables a new life to their books through digitisation, and makes it possible for readers to continue enjoying them time after time. Authors appreciate the recognition of their right to decide how this access is organized," says Pirjo Hiidenmaa, EWC, President.
The representatives of authors, publishers and collective management organisations for text- and image-based works are proud to be signatories of the Out of Commerce Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), enabled through a dialogue with libraries, and facilitated by the European Commission. The MoU recognises that the right to authorise the use of an Out of Commerce work is vested in the copyright holder (authors and/ or publishers) and that voluntary solutions with the appropriate support of collective management can be the way forward.
Librius launches SINBAD, the first Belgian anti-piracy webcrawler for books
In July 2011 Librius, the collecting society of the Flemish book publishers, launched SINBAD (‘Searching the Internet for Non-authorized Books And Displays’), an anti-piracy webcrawler for books.
SINBAD feeds title metadata from the Boek.be books-in-print database ‘Boekenbank’ (www.boekenbank.be) into HYDRA, the BAF (Belgian Anti-Piracy Federation) anti-piracy webcrawler initially developed for music, games and movies. SINBAD uses a comprehensive and self-feeding scanning list of well-known direct download- and P2P websites and newsgroups. In so doing, SINBAD is able to scan the entire internet for illegal book content of Librius’ members and subsequently to take down infringing links.
The first test results were very surprising indeed: more than 29,000 illegal links to Flemish book content were found and removed (roughly 19,000 for A-books and 10,000 for comic books). Bearing in mind that BAF took down 12,000 illegal links to Belgian music, games and audiovisual content in 2010, the results go to show that the phenomenon of book piracy is not to be underestimated, even in small language markets. SINBAD is only one part of the integrated Boek.be/Librius anti-piracy approach though, which is also aimed at endorsing the development of high-quality legal content and the protection thereof (e.g. www.e-boek.org) and at changing the focus from end-consumers to hosts, uploaders and ISP’s’.
Source: REPROBEL, Belgium
The Commission has adopted a Proposal for a Directive on certain permitted uses of orphan works
The Commission has adopted a Proposal for a Directive on certain permitted uses of orphan works with a view to establishing common rules on the digitisation and online display of so-called orphan works. Orphan works are works like books, newspaper and magazine articles, and films that are still protected by copyright but whose authors are not known or cannot be located or contacted to obtain copyright permissions. Orphan works are part of the collections held by European libraries that might remain untouched if no common rules are developed to make their digitisation and online display legally possible. Common rules on how to deal with such works are therefore necessary in order to proceed with large-scale digitisation projects, such as the Commission’s Europeana portal.
To access the text of the proposal, the Impact Assessment, and additional information:
http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/copyright/orphan_works_en.htm
The European Commission launches high-level expert group on literacy chaired by Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands
One in five 15-year-olds in Europe, as well as many adults, lack basic reading and writing skills, which makes it harder for them to find a job and puts them at risk of social exclusion. To help tackle the issue, the European Commission has set up an independent group of experts to identify ways of raising literacy levels. The group,is chaired by Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands, who is a Special Envoy on Literacy for Development for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). EU Ministers have set a target of reducing the share of pupils with difficulties in reading, maths and science to fewer than 15% by 2020.
Androulla Vassiliou, the European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, said:
"The launch of this group marks the start of a Europe-wide campaign to address the root causes of low literacy levels. Too many Europeans find themselves locked out of the job market and find it hard to contribute fully to society because they lack basic reading and writing skills. If we want to achieve our Europe 2020 goals for smart and inclusive growth, we must act now to tackle this problem."
Princess Laurentien added:
"I greatly welcome this initiative as it is high time Europe faces up to the uncomfortable reality of high levels of illiteracy within its borders. This initiative will help address the taboo that exists to this day. Illiteracy stands in the way of economic growth and inclusiveness. By tackling illiteracy, we are also likely to contribute to solutions in a range of other areas, such as poverty, employability and healthy living. Together with the experts, we hope to provide a bold vision on the issues to be addressed and how literacy can help us creating strong, competitive economies and healthy societies within the EU."
Objective of High-Level Group on Literacy
The objective of the High-Level Group on Literacy is to give visibility and political importance to the issue of raising literacy levels in Europe. It will analyse scientific evidence and evaluate what policies work best. The 11 members of the group are experts on literacy from academia, politics and business. Click here for biographies and comments from the members.
Next steps
The High-Level Group will meet regularly over the coming 18 months and will present policy proposals to the Commission in mid-2012. Based on the group's proposals, Commissioner Vassiliou will present recommendations to Education Ministers in autumn 2012. On this basis, Member States and the Commission will take the issue further as part of their strategic co-operation framework on education and training ("Education and Training 2020").
EWC book on “Authors’ Rights in the Digital World published
The Proceedings of the 5th European Conference organised by the European Writers’ Council, and held in April 2010 at the European Parliament (Brussels) under the patronage of MEP Helga Trüpel, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance, is available in digital form.
To download the PDF, please go to the Publications page of this website
Question on “Non-implementation of the Public Lending Right in Europe to the European Commission by Zuzana Roithová (PPE), Member of the European Parliament
On 22 July MEP Z. Roithová sent the Parliamentary letter for a written answer, highlighting three key questions:
1. What steps and measures will the Commission take in connection with the violation of EU legislation by several Member States in their non-implementation of the public lending right pursuant to Directive 92/100/EEC (2006/115/EC)?
2. When does the Commission intend to bring infringement procedures in this matter against the abovementioned Member States?
3. What are the reasons for the failure to complete the internal market regarding the public lending right in order to provide fair compensation for authors for the lending of their works?
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+WQ+E-2010-5654+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN
The European Commission Replies
On 31 August, Mr. Michel Barnier, European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services answered the letter on behalf of the Commission. Mr. Barnier’s response focuses on three points:
1. The Commission's practice is to commence infringement proceedings once a complaint makes a reasonably substantiated allegation that the EU Treaty or secondary legislation is not respected.
2. The Commission has, at this stage, not received any substantiated complaints that the Member States mentioned in the Honourable Member's question have committed a breach of EC laws.
3. There are indeed several reasons why the public lending right is not applied in a uniform manner for the benefit of authors throughout the European Union. These reasons are not, however, linked to the enforcement policy of the Commission but rather the wording of Directive 92/100/EEC(1) on rental right and lending right and on certain rights related to copyright in the field of intellectual property (as codified by Directive 2006/115/EC).
For the full text of the Commissioner’s reply:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getAllAnswers.do?reference=E-2010-5654&language=EN
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Literacy and the Culture of Reading
