European print publishers welcome the choice to dedicate this year’s World Intellectual Property Day to small businesses. The diversity and pluralism of the press in Europe has historically been built upon and relies on small and medium-sized publishers.
During the last year of the coronavirus pandemic, European citizens have trusted the digital offerings of newspaper and magazine publishers as never before. Intellectual property rights, including authors’ rights and related law for newspaper publishers, are the fundamental basis of this growing trend. They are essential to ensure the future sustainability of digital and print publishing activity and its fundamental role for the diversity and pluralism of the press.
The adoption of the related law of print publishers in the copyright directive was a first historic achievement that has yet to be implemented in most EU Member States.
Therefore, on World Intellectual Property Day, EMMA and ENPA, together with their members, publishers of newspapers and magazines of all sizes across Europe, including the Italian publishers of FIEG, are calling on EU Member States to rapidly transpose the related law of newspaper publishers, whose transposition deadline into national legislation expires on 7 June 2021.
A rapid implementation of the related law of publishers is an essential precondition for rebalancing the playing field in digital markets. Furthermore, with the Digital Markets Act the EU has the historical possibility to address abusive practices of gatekeepers, such as their refusal to pay the right to reuse print publishers’ content, as well as to establish a global benchmark. obliging them to provide fair and non-discriminatory access to their services and adding a binding mechanism that forces them to negotiate fair pricing conditions.
Ilias Konteas, executive director of EMMA and ENPA said: “More than ever, the European press today needs a strong and effective publisher’s right to be implemented in all Member States by the deadline set by the copyright directive. as gatekeepers finally pay for the use of publishers’ content. For this reason, we are calling for significant improvements in the law on digital markets to put an end to the abusive practices of all gatekeepers. “