Speaking as Chairman of the EPC, Impresa CEO Francisco Pinto Balsemão (pictured) said: “We welcome Commissioner McCreevy’s call for collaboration and look forward to working with the Commission to bring 300 years of copyright law alive on the web by establishing “best practices”, finding “solutions” and maximizing the efficacy of voluntary arrangements.”
The EPC has been vocal in the copyright debate calling not for a change in copyright law, but rather for regulatory support for technical solutions to copyright compliance such as ACAP (Automated Content Access Protocol), a publisher initiative to create a new global tool for all rightsholders to communicate their specific copyright terms and conditions online as they already do in the offline environment.
ACAP Project Director Mark Bide said: “ACAP is the perfect 21st century solution that the Commission could promote as best practice. It is a simple, machine-readable language to enable users to communicate their online copyright unambiguously in the way that the Internet works. This should not be controversial, but there are those who claim the Internet should remain a wild west without rules or regulation. We argue that it is 300 years of copyright law that is responsible for the explosion of high-value, diverse content on all platforms that we see today. Now we need to ensure investment in content creation will continue to the mutual benefit of creators and users.”
Mr Balsemão continued: “I agree with Commissioner McCreevy when he says that the EU is home to some of most successful businesses in the world who consider intellectual property rights to be amongst their most precious commercial possessions. In this economic climate every part of our business is being squeezed and we must nurture our commercial possessions. Let us now implement together practical solutions to take advantage of the limitless possibilities offered by digital technology so that our businesses remain profitable enough to continue to invest in professional journalism and the creative process.”
