#FreeAllWords: International Text and Translation Fund of the European Writers‘ Council (EWC) gives a voice to authors from Belarus and Ukraine
EWC joined the Content4Education Campaign, to support writers and translators during the period of a fair implementing of the DSM Directive. The EU Copyright in the Digital Single Market (“DSM”) Directive 2019/790, adopted in April 2019, includes a mandatory exception to copyright under Article 5 for the “digital use of works and other subject matter for the sole purpose of illustration for teaching”. EU Member States have until 7 June 2021 to transpose the Directive into national law, with some flexibility in how they do so.
The way in which Article 5 is implemented strongly impacts authors and publishers. This is because written works, and especialy educational materials, are a significant part of the publishing market(1), as well as being the resources most frequently copied (2) by teachers and pupils under licences provided by collective management organisations in the text and image field (“Reproduction Rights Organisations” or “RROs”).
As a result, it is vital that authors and publishers are remunerated when their works are used by educational establishments. If authors and publishers are deprived of these legitimate revenues, this will create an imbalance in the creative ecosystem and jeopardise the production of diverse, reliable, quality content that is essential to an informed and democratic society.
IFRRO, the international network of collective management organisations and creators’ and publishers’ associations in the text and image spheres, has developed “Content for Education” (www.contentforeducation.org) with the support of its members, as a tool to:
- Raise awareness about the benefits for teachers, students, authors and publishers of having a balanced approach to Article 5 implementation, as well as the dangers of introducing a broad, unremunerated exception
- Provide information about collective licensing solutions that exist and how they benefit authors, publishers, educational establishments and their students
- Provide suggestions for how Article 5 can be transposed in a way that ensures sustainable, diverse, high-quality content for education in Europe.
The Content for Education website explains Article 5 and its potential impact. It includes explanatory videos, testimonials from authors (including writers, literary translators, visual artists, journalists), publishers and teachers, as well as examples of collective licensing solutions from different countries. If you are interested to learn more visit the official website: www.contentforeducation.org or download the Content4Education brochure and the FAQ:
Sources:
(1) School book publishing represents 20% of the European publishing market which has a retail market value of €6-7 billion.
(2) E.g., in Denmark 500 million school book pages are copied each year; in France it is the equivalent of 2 million books.