FIAD President advises Commissioner Oettinger on upcoming copyright reform

Following the 65th annual Berlin International Film Festival, FIAD's President, Victor Hadida along with Martin Moszkowicz, Chairman of the Executive Board of Constantin Film AG and Chairman of the advisory board for German Films and Tim Richards, Founder and CEO of VUE Entertainment sent a letter to Commissioner Oettinger regarding the Commission’s strategy for cinema and copyright reform.

According to the European film professionals, there is “a need for evidence-based policy making when it comes to developing the Commission’s strategy for cinema and copyright.”

They expressed the importance of the industry’s commercial freedom to adjust the release pattern and the price for films to local market demand. The European Union should trust that the industry is best placed to decide “how films should be released across Europe to the benefit of our consumers” and they highlighted that a single release model would only jeopardize the future production and distribution of “smaller and more fragile works.”

Amongst other things they made concrete suggestions on how to help the sector become more “competitive, diverse and innovative” including increasing “efforts to reduce profits from commercial-scale infringements on the Internet through the Follow the Money Initiative”.

As regards addressing the challenges of film funding, they refer to international platform providers Google, Netflix, Amazon and iTunes which “should contribute to national film funds if they create revenues on the basis of selling theatrically released films.”

Finally, the letter calls for more transparency of the new players in the value chain “regarding the commercial, cultural and social value that they bring to Europe. “

To this end, a copy of the letter has been sent to UK, German and French national ministers responsible for copyright and film as well as to the cabinet of the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.