PRESS RELEASE | REMUNERATION FOR PRIVATE COPYING: INDUSTRIALISTS ONCE AGAIN DENOUNCE THE STRUCTURAL IMBALANCE AFFECTING THE COMMISSION'S WORK
Following the meeting on Friday, October 6, the "industrialists" committee, of which RCube is a member, of the Private Copying Commission responsible for establishing private copying remuneration rates (Article L. 311-5 of the Intellectual Property Code) regretfully notes the persistence of unbalanced governance in favor of rights holders.
Despite the efforts made by the Commission President to ensure balanced debate and his desire to continue working towards consensus, there remain profound differences in approach between the various colleges. The beneficiaries remain in a position to block any proposal to improve the functioning of the Commission, as illustrated by the results of the votes held during the plenary session on October 6, 2023.
Once again, we see the rights holders rejecting outright any method that complements the usage studies conducted since 2012, despite proposals from manufacturers based on recognized work and in line with the recommendations of the IGAC-IGF mission. This mission highlighted in particular the "major internal dysfunctions" that undermine the acceptability ofthe current system.
The principled opposition of rights holders to conducting a feasibility study on a device for analyzing terminals reflects a refusal to modernize. However, copying practices have changed significantly, particularly with the development of legal subscription-based streaming services for music and video. The proposed feasibility study aimed to compare the results of the current methodology with the actual content of terminals and thus verify the consistency of this method.
Rights holders know how to adapt to new practices when it is in their interest to do so: measures paving the way for the taxation of cloud copies have thus been adopted. However, FFTélécoms, AFNUM, and SECIMAVI have each, in turn, presented, within very tight deadlines, the technical and legal questions surrounding the application of the private copying regime in this context, without these issues being able to be dealt with in depth by the Commission.
Given the current governance rules, which do not ensure balanced and equal representation of stakeholders and are known to be flawed, the result is once again that the actions put to the vote are approved or rejected under the sole control of the rights holders.
The French market is already an exception: Copie France collected €295 million in private copying royalties in 2021, with France accounting for one-third of the total amount paid in Europe for this royalty. Such an imbalance destabilizes competition in the terminal markets between Member States. It can only have a lasting impact on the relevance and acceptability of decisions relating to private copying remuneration. There is an urgent need to overhaul this system, which is unsuited to the digital age and the circular economy.
1 https://www.culture.gouv.fr/Espace-documentation/Rapports/Rapport-du-Gouvernement-au-Parlement-sur-la-remuneration-pour-copie-privee-octobre-2022
