Copyright and cultural diversity
The conclusions of a study completed by a Geneva-based lawfirm, which  
summarises the state of implementation of the UNESCO Convention on the  
Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions  
(ratified by the EC in 2007),was presented to the Culture and  
Education Committee (CULT). The study focused on fields where the EU  
would be expected to provide leadership. A good deal of attention is  
paid to the regulatory implications of digital media and the research  
team adopts an emphatically critical approach to the idea of enhancing  
copyright.

During the workshop, the head of the study, Christophe Germann, said  
that while some copyright is necessary, the research team had come to  
the conclusion that too much copyright “is detrimental to diversity of  
cultural expression” and that policy-makers in the EU are generally  
overly exposed to lobbyists that “repeat the prevailing dogma about  
the need for better copyright law”. According to the assessment,  
policy-makers who only listen to the loudest and strongest voice fail  
to implement the parts of the Convention they consider most valuable;  
diversity of cultural expression is particularly threatened by IPRs  
“in markets that are dominated by big corporations exercising  
collective power as oligopolies”.

The study considered selective state aid mechanisms in the audiovisual  
field risky insofar as they not only represent an incentive to  
clientelism but also serve as a bad model for authoritarian regimes  
with regard to the possibility of covert censorship and inhibiting  
cultural entrepreneurship.

Dr. Germann was highly critical of the the fact that so far there had  
not been any formal discussions between the EU and WTO on questions of  
trade and culture, and he pointed out that during recent international  
trade negotiations the issue of “cultural exceptions” was not even  
raised by the EU. He also  indicated that culture-related aspects of  
intellectual property rights might have translated into increasingly  
well-articulated norms of law. The need to distinguish between patents  
and public health was also mentioned, and the EU was admonished for  
negotiating TRIPS-plus, which would “export regulations to  
jurisdictions that don't have proper competition law to balance  
protection with IPR”.

Mira Burri (World Trade Institute) presented the assessment of  
implementation of the UNESCO Convention in EU internal policies, and  
reminded the Commission that mainstreaming a culture obligation into  
all relevant policy decisions is one of the obligations under the  
Convention. Ms. Burri said the Commission should be particularly  
cautious when pushing for extending copyrights “which could also  
reduce creativity” and “have an important impact on freedom” -  
especially with respect to the implementation of rules such as "3  
strikes" and the enforcement of copyright through intermediaries.  
Overall, she declared, the interests and rights of users are not duly  
protected in negotiations.

Doris Pack (EPP, Germany and CULT Chairwoman) closed the session with  
a sharp rebuke of the authors' inclusion of the oft cited Jean Monnet  
quote “If I had to start all over I would start with  
culture” (referring to the coal and steel agreements that initially  
formed the basis of the European Community), calling it  
“nonsense” (“How could anyone imagine that he ever said that?”), and  
asking the authors to delete it from an otherwise good study.

The UNESCO Study on EU implementation of the 2005 UNESCO Convention is  
available here: bit.ly/aIPdJr (French and German translations  
forthcoming).

A summary of the UNESCO Study is available here: bit.ly/9XyuKZ.