euro news_news 26/02/2015 10:22 Page 5
Copyright holding back
Single Digital Market
ndrus Ansip, European
Commission vice president
responsible for the Digital
Single Market, has suggested that
Europe's rules on copyright need to
be updated to make them fit for the
digital age, describing copyright as
a restriction holding back the full
development of the Digital Single
Market.
Speaking at a debate organised by the
European Internet Foundation in
Brussels, Ansip said his vision was for a
digital area:
A
l where goods,
people, services and
capital can move
freely;
l where everyone can
access and carry out
online activities,
across borders and
with complete ease,
safely and securely;
l where there is fair
competition,
regardless of
nationality or place of residence,
underpinned by a clear legal
structure.
“Unfortunately, we are still a long way
from achieving that vision,” he admitted,
adding that there were still too many
barriers and restrictions, which meant
that Europe was losing out on
unexploited potential.
“Just as an example, let me mention
that the system is not workable for a
pan-European market. Copyright is just
one example of a restriction holding back
the full development of the Digital Single
Market,” he suggested.
For Ansip, the challenge ahead was to
transform Europe's 'physical' internal
market into a digital one, confirming that
the Commission would meet this
challenge “head-on”, with concrete and
practical initiatives to encourage:
l trust and choice
l competition and growth
l predictability and compliance
l the secure and free flow of
information and data across
borders.
“I am working with a
group of fellow
Commissioners whose areas
of responsibility touch on
digital matters to draw up a
strategy for the Digital
Single Market,” he advised,
saying that the EC would
present this strategy later
during Latvia's EU
Presidency. “It will contain several
thematic strands. I have already
mentioned two of these: building trust
and confidence; removing restrictions. It
will set out how the Commission plans to
move forward over the next five years –
and include plans for new legislation and
the updating of existing laws.”
Work aimed at building the digital
economy would include looking closely at
cloud computing and the data
economy as a focus for revitalising
European industry with Ansip
declaring that a single telecoms
market was an essential building
block of the Digital Single Market,
and identifying three main problem
areas to be tackled:
“Europe's rules on
copyright need to be
updated to make them fit
for the digital age.”
Europe's rules on copyright, which need
to be updated to make them fit for the
digital age. It is more than frustrating
when you are unable to access online
material – music, films, anything that
you have paid good money for – when
you travel to another country and find
yourself blocked from doing so,” he said,
noting that today's copyright rules also
vary a great deal around the EU's 28
countries. “There are so many national
exceptions, differences and limitations
12 EUROMEDIA
l irritating roaming charges when
people go online and communicate
from a different EU country;
l inconsistent policies across the EU
that mean we are not maximising our
wireless capacity;
l a lack of net neutrality.
On this last point, he reiterated his
belief that the Internet was universal an