This blog post is the last part of a series of three and aims to help understand the need for a neighbouring right for press publishers in the digital age.
Who will pay and how much?
The proposed neighbouring right applies exclusively to uses by information society service providers. This means that services that re-use digital press content should pay news brands a remuneration for the respective use. Any service provider that performs the en-masse re-use of the publishers’ content for direct or indirect, traditional or innovative (data processing) commercial gain, should provide news brands with a fair and proportionate remuneration for those uses.
The level of remuneration will be negotiated in the National market in which the press-publisher operates. The level of remuneration will be established according to the market conditions in the respective Member States and will take time to be established, mature and finally function for the good of the European press sector and its readers.
Who will not be affected by the introduction of the right?
The introduction of a neighbouring right will not change the way consumers access the news. In fact, it adapts the European copyright regime to consumer behavior. The right does not target individual uses by private persons. By limiting the right to uses by information society service providers, the letter of the law excludes individual uses from its scope. News brands have encouraged and will continue to encourage their users to share, post links on social media, as private non-commercial uses only consolidate the highly valued trust relation between news brands and their readers.
The introduction of a neighbouring right for press publishers is not only an opportunity for the press-sector, but an increasingly necessary legal instrument that gives press publishers a much needed legal standing that will empower them to negotiate licensing agreements with third parties on the terms and conditions in which their content is distributed, with a view to guaranteeing a sustainable future for news brands and consumers of press content alike.
News brands need the introduction of a clear, balanced and robust legal instrument that fosters legal clarity and harmonization across the European Market to protect their content online. Any further limitation to the sensible approaches of the European Parliament and the Council would render the right unenforceable and could unintentionally lead to the hampering of already existing licensing agreements in some Member States.
Therefore, for securing a thriving future for the European news brands in the EU and for the press to be able to serve its purpose to the best of its abilities, we hope we can count on your support for the introduction of a publishers’ right in the Proposal for Copyright in the Digital Single Market on the 20th of June.