Leading European user and technology industry groups unite to call for a balanced Information Society Copyright Directive

EFPICC is a campaign to highlight the serious concerns of leading associations independently representing European consumer, library, archives and documentation centres, disability, education, and consumer electronic industry interests about the proposed Copyright in the Information Society Directive. (See list of members below.)

This proposal presents both a great opportunity and a great danger. If it strikes a fair balance between on one hand copyright owners, and on the other users and technology industries, it will benefit European society as a whole. If it does not, users will be blocked by powerful commercial interests using strong monopolistic rights from the sort of reasonable access to and use of music, film, literature, scientific and educational materials, and programmes they have enjoyed for years.

EFPICC fully supports strong measures combatting commercial copyright piracy. However, fair practices by users and access to copyright works, which causes no damage to right owners, is not commercial piracy. Indeed, private and non-commercial copying in one form or another is currently lawful in most Member States.

Examples of fair practices are listed below. If the proposed Copyright Directive does not guarantee fair practice exceptions by making them mandatory throughout the EU, there is a real danger that they will become unlawful in the individual Member States. This would be contrary to the public interest and contrary to the development of European culture.

Copyright is about encouraging the creation of new works. But it is also about access to works by the public and about fair practice uses of such works in education, research, private study and reasonable non-commercial consumer copying within the home; about access to and fair practice use of such works through libraries and by disabled people; and about new technology which provides the means by which rightowners make their works available to consumers, as this provides access to culture.

The position that all digital private copying should be unlawful is unreasonable as is shown by the examples below.

EFPICC is supported by the following independent associations:

• BEUC: The European Consumers' Association
• EBLIDA: European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations
• EBU: European Blind Union
• EDF: European Disability Forum
• EACEM: European Association of Consumer Electronics Manufacturers
• ILSMH-EA: International League of Societies for Persons with Mental Handicap - European Association

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Paula Duarte, Information Officer, tel: + 32 2 502 83 71/fax: + 32 2 502 48 69
Barbara Schleihagen, Spokeswoman, tel: +31 70 309 0608/fax: +31 70 309 0708

Examples of Fair Practice Copying

1. Recording a free broadcast television programme if you go out for the evening or want to watch something else at the same time.
   
   
2. Making your own personal compilation recording of tracks selected from your own purchased collection of CDs.
   
   
3. Making a copy of a CD or MiniDisk you have bought in order to play that copy in your car or on portable player.
   
   
4. Making a copy purely for private back-up or preservation purposes.
   
   
5. Copying by people with a sensory, mental or physical disability so that they are able to enjoy that work in an equivalent way to a person without such a disability.
   
   For example, if a visually impaired person buys a book they should not have to pay twice to put that book into braille form. Equally, a person with a learning disability may have difficulty understanding a programme at first hearing or viewing. They may therefore need to record it to watch it a little at a time or to get help from others.
   
   
6. The copying of a reasonable part of works for the purpose of
   
   (i) research
   (ii) private study
   (iii) learning and examination
   (iv) teaching
   
   
7. The copying by libraries, archives, documentation centres and educational establishments
   
   (i) to convert works into digital form for archival or preservation purposes
   (ii) of a reasonable part (e.g. a few pages) of digital works on paper or on diskette for their normal users.
   
   
8. The display on screen of lawfully acquired electronic materials by libraries, archives, and documentation centres to allow normal users on-site to view, browse, listen to or copy for private study, educational or research purposes.
   
   
9. Browsing on the Internet.