EWC
  • ABOUT US
    • WHO WE ARE
    • OUR BOARD
    • OUR MEMBERS
    • STATUTES
    • MEDIA
    • CONTACT US
  • NEWS
    • NEWSROOM
    • EVENTS
    • PROJECTS
      • #FREE ALL WORDS
  • ALLIANCES
    • JOINT STATEMENTS
    • STAKEHOLDERS
  • AUTHORS’ RIGHTS
    • ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
    • ARTISTIC FREEDOM
    • CONTRACTS
    • EDUCATIONAL SECTOR
    • E-LENDING
    • PLR
    • STATEMENTS
    • SURVEYS
    • WORKING GROUPS
  • CULTURE POLICY
    • DAY OF EUROPEAN AUTHORS
    • #BEHINDEVERYBOOK
    • CRISIS MONITORING
    • DIVERSITY & INCLUSION
  • CULTURAL EXCHANGE
    • EWC BURNING ISSUS FORUM
    • EWC LITERARY EVENTS

CURRENT PROJECT

Free All Words#FreeAllWords: International Text and Translation Fund of the European Writers‘ Council (EWC) gives a voice to authors from Belarus and Ukraine

freeallwords.com

Content4Education

2nd September 2019

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. Read more

 

EWC | European Writers Council

CONTENT4EDUCATION: STATEMENTS BY EWC MEMBERS AND EWC PRESIDENT

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.

What EWC Members say:

Nina George, Author, EWC President – Germany

image001 (1).jpg

Photocredit: Nina George © Julia Baier

Pandemic conspiracy theories in the social networks, extreme political tendencies, fake news factories and government leaders who ignore science and thereby plunge their nations into chaos and misery: we live in a disturbing present in which facts, knowledge, education and well-founded findings have become the most important counterbalance to destructive developments and phenomena of world society. Profound and independently elaborated facts are the backbone of humane civil society.

It is all the more essential to cultivate, promote and protect the sources of these values of knowledge, education, science and teaching: the authors. It is not only climate change that has taught us that sustainability is of paramount importance. This also applies to all dealings with authors’ rights and with copyrighted works and their origins: Nationally stable legal frameworks with a simultaneous forward-looking budget for school and teaching materials and for the authors are a logically imperative investment. It is the vaccination we need to make humane, wise and free decisions.

Article 5(4) of the DSM Directive expressly allows for example the German legislator to provide for remuneration. It is therefore imperative to retain the existing remuneration claim – which is subject to the obligation to pay a Collective Management Organisation – under Articles 60a, 60h (4) UrhG.

This is the only way to preserve substantial knowledge, which is needed more than ever to maintain social immunity against populism and antipluralism.

I refer further to the statement of VG Wort: https://www.vgwort.de/fileadmin/pdf/stellungnahmen/Stellungnahme_Umsetzung_EU-Richtlinien.pdf

Morten Rosenmeier, Professor of copyright law and chairman of the Committee for the Protection of Scientific and Scholarly Work (UBVA) – Denmark

Morten-Rosenmeier.jpg

It takes thousands of hours to write a copyright textbook. If the law students are to learn anything it simply has to be of high quality. Much of it is written in my spare time, including weekends and holidays. Copyright and licensing provides an important economic incentive for me, as well as for the publisher who publishes the book. It is not acceptable that EU Member States’ implementation of the new EU copyright law could leave authors in a position where their work is used/copied for free. Why would I spend all that time and effort writing a textbook if everybody can just copy it for free? If I have no remuneration when my textbook is copied, it will no doubt lessen my incentive to spend thousands of hours writing it. If works can be used without limits and remuneration it will no doubt mean that we will get fewer textbooks and the ones we will get will be of a lower quality than the ones we have now.

 

 

Carlos Fortea, Author, translator and teacher at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid – Spain

Fortea5.JPG

My life revolves around the book, because I am a novellist, because I am a translator, because I am a university professor. This triple condition has made me aware, since a long time ago, both of the fundamental importance of copyright and the need to guarantee the right to information.

For many authors, copyright is not only a form of property, but a source of livelihood: living to write entails living from writing, and that implies that it is necessary to respect creation and remunerate it. This applies to the direct creation by authors, indirect creation by translators, and the scientific creation by professors.

We are dealing with a task with high added value: it requires many years of formation, much trial and error, much effort, constant updating. From it live many other members of the value chain of the book. Even then, we understand it is necessary to enable students and readers to access part of our work, but this must be done with fair conditions. And fair conditions mean licences, rules, the agreed remuneration that allows us to carry on with our work. To respect creation is to respect culture.

​

 

If you are interested to learn more visit the official website: www.contentforeducation.orgor download the Content4Education brochure and the FAQ:

DOWNLOAD THE BROCHURE

DOWNLOAD THE FAQ

 

ARCHIVE:

July 2018: We are happy to announce that the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations, the European Visual Artists, the European Federation of Journalists, the Federation of European Publishers and the European Writer’s Council are launching the #Content4Education campaign to promote a balanced copyright framework allowing reproductions of works in Education while remunerating creators.

Join: www.contentforeducation.org/sign

Authors, including writers, literary translators, illustrators and journalists, together with teachers and publishers, unite to campaign for the sustainable delivery of quality, innovative, content for education.

The Content for Education campaign (see www.contentforeducation.org) was launched by organisations representing writers and literary translators, visual artists, journalists and publishers, together with the collective management organisations that authorise photocopying and digital reproduction and pass on the fees collected to authors and publishers.
The Content for Education campaign calls on European policymakers to future proof educational practices by not allowing for the unremunerated and unlimited copying of published content. For the sustainability of Europe’s innovative, diverse and local materials for education, it is vital that the “illustration for teaching” exception set out in Article 4 of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market (”DSM”) Directive is balanced:

  • Allows Member States to keep their current well-functioning licensing systems
  • Provides for remuneration for authors and publishers
  • Limits the copying of publications to extracts of works
  • Allows Member States to continue excluding text books from the exception

The Content for Education website raises awareness about the potentially negative impact of an unbalanced Article 4 on the creation and the quality of educational materials in Europe. While most EU Member States currently allow for remuneration for copies or uses of works made for educational purposes, the new proposal would mean that any given Member State could legally abolish this in the future. It is therefore important that licensing schemes which allow authors and publishers to be remunerated must be able to prevail and that where the exception applies, the law ensures that there is mandatory fair compensation for rightholders. This will ensure that educators can continue to rely on a rich variety of quality content reflecting different points of view, which is essential to democracy and freedom of expression.

The “illustration for teaching” exception, which could be further jeopardised by some proposed Parliamentary amendments, has far reaching consequences for the future European educational ecosystem, as it opens the door to extensive, unremunerated digital uses that will negatively impact the creation of new educational material. It is only fair that Member States are allowed to promote licensing schemes or in the absence of such schemes, the exception is limited to extracts and compensated for. The testimonials from authors, illustrators, journalists, teachers and publishers, which can be found on the website, illustrate the grave concerns they have about the impact of the proposal on education in the EU.

On behalf of the “Content for Education” campaign, IFRRO CEO Caroline Morgan said:
It is vital that the “illustration for teaching” exception is balanced. The clear message from the testimonials from authors, illustrators, journalists, teachers and publishers on the Content for Education website is that the sustainable delivery of quality, educational content must not be put at risk. There is currently a risk that Article 4 of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive will lead to a lose-lose scenario, not only for authors and publishers, but for teachers, pupils and students across Europe who will be deprived of culturally diverse, innovative, quality content.”

If you are interested to learn more visit the official website: www.contentforeducation.org

Join: www.contentforeducation.org/sign

Previous Post
ALCS Income Survey (UK) under 50.000 writers
Next Post
PLR – Public Lending Right

AUTHORS’ RIGHTS

WIPO SCCR/43: Protect your intellectual properties and mental capital

March 18, 2023

WIPO SCCR/43: PLR implements the principle that ‘every use must be remunerated’

March 18, 2023

Joint statement from authors’ and performers’ organisations on Artificial Intelligence and the AI Act

February 9, 2023

Convocation of the EWC-FAEE AISBL Annual General Meeting 2023

February 3, 2023

++ JOB CALL CLOSED ++ We are hiring: the EWC is looking for a part-time Administration Officer

January 20, 2023

EWC project #Freeallwords translated text by Nobel Price for Peace Laureate

December 9, 2022
Retweet on Twitter European Writers' Council Retweeted
culturemoveseu Culture Moves Europe @culturemoveseu ·
27 Mar

Apply in March to travel from June on! 😄
At the end of each month, we review applications and assign #mobilitygrants to #artists and #culturalprofessionals from across the 40 @europe_creative ...countries.
The call is open until May 2023, with monthly deadlines.
#CultureMovesEurope

Retweet on Twitter European Writers' Council Retweeted
conor_kostick Conor Kostick @conor_kostick ·
27 Mar

I'm going to take a deep dive into the complexities of narrative voice with the students of @clonturkcc as part of the Day of European Authors.

See👉https://europa.eu/!FFgtW6
#ReadWithEurope

My ...first slide:

councilwriters European Writers' Council @councilwriters ·
27 Mar

#ReadWithEurope: the team of @europe_creative and the DG EAC Judith, Arnaud and Malgorzata made the first Day of European Authors possible, together with their team in Brussels. Good news: yes, the ...preperation for the DEA2024 starts already tomorrow. Applause & thanks!

councilwriters European Writers' Council @councilwriters ·
27 Mar

#ReadWithEurope and Finland on the first Day of European Authors:

2

Retweet on Twitter European Writers' Council Retweeted
osdelgr Οργανισμός Συλλογικής Διαχείρισης Έργων του Λόγου @osdelgr ·
27 Mar

27 Μαρτίου | Ημέρα Ευρωπαίων Συγγραφέων. Μια πρωτοβουλία της επιτρόπου @GabrielMariya. Τον συντονισμό έχουν αναλάβει... η @FEP_EU και το @CouncilWriters. Από την ελληνική πλευρά συμμετέχει η Εταιρεία Συγγραφέων.

#ReadWithEurope #EUPL #CreativeEurope #DayofEuropeanAuthors #copyrght

councilwriters European Writers' Council @councilwriters ·
27 Mar

#ReadWithEurope and Czech Republic on the first Day of European Authors:

LOAD MORE
EWC
info@europeanwriterscouncil.eu
+32 2 290 92 50
European Writers’ Council
(EWC-FAEE AISBL)
Rue du Prince Royal 85-87
1050 Brussels
Belgium
Get in touch
Twitter
Facebook
Instagram
EWC
IMPRINT
PRIVACY POLICY
MEMBERS AREA
Related Links
balticwriterscouncil.info
ceatl.eu
culturalcreators.eu
creativityworks.eu
ifrro.org
plrinternational.com
Current Projects
Free All Words


#FreeAllWords
: Fee and Translation Fund for texts by Authors from Countries under pressure

© 2022 European Writers’ Council | All rights reserved.

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. If you continue to use this site, you agree with it. PRIVACY POLICY