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| How to regulate copyright on the Internet? |
You may recall that over 2 years ago the Italian Communications Authority was meant to approve regulations on the protection of copyright over the Internet resembling the US DMCA. However, at that time no action had been taken, but the chairman of the Italian competition authority has now sent a call-to-action notification to the Parliament that might have an impact on the future of copyright on the Internet in Italy.
Interestingly the authority stressed the need to protect editors’ works on the Internet also in the light of, among others, new tools such as social networks and news aggregators since the information generated by editors is exploited by third parties without that the former are able – according to the authority – to share the value gained through such information which might become an disincentive to the creation of such works.
On the basis of the above, the authority outlined that the possible options are
- either to foster the cooperation between editors and operators exploiting such contents following the example of the agreement reached in France where Google contributed with EUR 60 million to the creation of a fund aimed at supporting the digital transition of the press and innovative investments in the sector;
- or – on the basis of the recent German example – to adopt a law providing for a right connected to copyright for editors on the usage on their contents on the Internet for commercial purposes.
The authority is of the opinion that a new law addressing the matter and recognising a participation of editors to the benefits deriving from the exploitation of their contents is a better solution than the one-off contribution adopted in France. However, the authority itself recognises that such type of approach might lead to negative consequences for both users in terms of quality of services received and cost of access to them given that companies will try to transfer costs on them, but also for editors themselves as given the cost associated to the exploitation of their contents they might gain a lower level of visibility.
The letter of the authority does not contain any actual proposal for regulating the sector, but only fosters the Parliament to address the matter also escalating it at the international level. Indeed, a measure that would not be followed by similar actions in other jurisdictions might discriminate rather than support Italian editors.
Indeed, the matter is very complex and it is arguable what the real position of editors is. Indeed, the consequences of such type of measure in terms of lack of advertising/visibility of editors are uncertain. Additionally, if the contribution was recognised only to professional editors, it is possible to argue that such conduct might be deemed discriminatory towards any individual that creates contents and publishes them online.
It would be interesting to know your view on that, please comment this post or send an email to me,
Giulio Coraggio.
Image courtesy of Flickr by
gaelx
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