06 Feb 2014
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C4C’s Response to the European Commission’s Copyright Consultation

Phase 1: Lots of activity and no jingle bells

At the beginning of December, the European Commission launched its much anticipated public consultation on the review of the EU copyright rules. The due date to respond was 5 February.  With Christmas break right in the middle of the consultation period C4C (C4C) worked hard, in collaboration with signatories as well as non-signatories, to prepare two parallel tools:

  • on the one hand, our answering wizard aimed at individuals; and,
  • on the other, a thorough and in-depth response to the 80-questions fired at us thanks to a collaborative effort translating into C4C’s full response to the European Commission. This document is available for download in Word, OpenDocument and PDF format and we encourage all defenders of creativity to use it as a source of inspiration.

Phase 2: One more month to mobilise

On Friday, 31 January, European Commissioner for Internal Market and Service, Michel Barnier, announced an extension of deadline on Twitter. The message is simple, you now have until 5 March, so put this extra month to good use to let the European Commission know that copyright in Europe is broken and how they should fix it. To do so, go to our answering wizard and have your voice heard, or check out the public consultation here and use our response as starting point (Word, OpenDocument & PDF).

That’s not all: European Commissioner Barnier also announced on 4 February that the European Commission intends to release a White Paper on Copyright before the summer break – probably, June.

This White Paper should identify solutions ‘to real issues where there are issues’. The announcement was made in the sidelines of the Commissioner’s intervention before the European Parliament’s Plenary vote on MEP Gallo’s (EPP, FR) Report on copyright and related rights and multi-territorial licensing of rights in musical works for online uses (Directive on collective rights management) – see video below, from 9.45 onwards.

This means responses to this consultation are even more crucial, as they could shape the way the European Union handles copyright in the next decade. The time is now!