France

[FR] Establishment of Higher Council for Literary and Artistic Property

IRIS 2001-6:1/38

Charlotte Vier

Légipresse

On 11 May 2001, Catherine Tasca, Minister for Culture and Communication, established the Conseil supérieur de la propriété littéraire et artistique (Higher Council for Literary and Artistic Property - CSPLA). This council has been set up for a six-year period and its position in regard to the minister should mean that it will be a mediation body for matters relating to intellectual property in the context of the development of the information society. Its members represent not only a number of ministries, but also all professionals concerned with the issues raised by the application of literary and artistic copyright law to the digital world - authors, publishers of newspapers, magazines and books, providers of on-line services, performers, producers of phonograms and audiovisual and cinema works, radio and television broadcasters, etc - as well as consumers.

The main mission of the CSPLA is to pave the way for adapting intellectual property law to the digital age. A number of areas for consideration and work have already been highlighted. The first task of the CSPLA will be to look into the allocation of royalties to salaried authors and the companies employing them and to propose solutions without, however, challenging the existing schemes for collective works and commissioned works. Thus it may promote a simplification of the management of royalties and neighbouring rights, particularly by encouraging the collective management companies to join forces in order to create a single organisation.

The CSPLA will also be looking at how to determine which recording media should be entitled to receive remuneration for private copying, and in particular will be investigating the copying of digital matter, possibly including fixed images.

Lastly, the CSPLA will have the permanent objective of ensuring freedom of access to works by all, while at the same time combating counterfeiting. It will thus have to consider what is at issue and the limits of technical systems for the protection of works.

All these points will also have to be considered in the context of the best way of preparing for the transposition of the directive on copyright and neighbouring rights in the information society.