In reaction to a pending proposal to cut private copy remunerations with 90% in the Czech Republic, AEPO-ARTIS, EVA, GESAC, IFRRO and SAA have addressed Czech Minister of Culture Martin Braxa with a call to support the Czech and European Cultural and Creative Sector.
Read our letter:
Dear Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic,
Dear Mr. Baxa,
Tuesday 4 March 2025
Concerns: recent development on private copying compensation in the Czech Republic
We are writing to you as the organisations representing Europe’s authors, performers, publishers and producers in their capacity as beneficiaries of the private copy compensation. Our sector is very appreciative of the Czech Republic’s longstanding commitment to culture and creativity and share the drive to protect and nourish it.
We have been informed by our Czech members (DILIA, OSA, OOA-S and Intergram) about a recent proposal to cut private copy tariffs by 90%. We kindly urge you to consider the serious implications of this proposal and to support the cultural and creative industries in maintaining fair compensation.
The concept of private copying compensation is part of the EU acquis and has been affirmed by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which, through a substantial body of case law, has consistently confirmed its necessity and extended its application to new devices and services in a technologically neutral manner.
In a recent ruling (OSA vs/ Vodaphone – 23 Cdo 1048/2023) the Czech Supreme Court followed the CJEU case law and ruled that smartphones are indeed devices that are subject to compensation for the right holders under Section 25(1)(b) of the Czech Copyright Act.
In response to this ruling a proposal has been introduced at the Chambre of Deputies to lower the tariffs on all devices, not only smartphones, from 3% to 0.3%. The proposal has been introduced as an amendment to the draft law amending certain laws in the field of tax administration (tisk 784), which will be up for 3rd reading during this week’s plenary session.
We strongly oppose the attempt to amend the Czech Copyright legislation as a mere budgetary intervention without asking the opinion of the competent Parliamentary Committee, which in the Czech Republic is the Committee on Science, Education, Culture, Youth and Sport.
Private copying compensation is a crucial part of the cultural ecosystem in all EU Member States. Firstly, it plays the role of directly compensating authors, performers, producers and publishers for their contribution to our shared cultural heritage. Additionally, it supports investments in new cultural production across the EU.
Consumers benefit from the ability to make private copies, increased access to more diverse creative works and cultural events supported by this scheme, and manufacturers can grow sales of the devices that allow consumers to use creative content in all the different ways they wish with legal certainty.
As such, private copying compensation is an indispensable and well-balanced component of local cultural policies at Member States’ level.
We would greatly appreciate your support in ensuring that European rightsholders continue to receive fair compensation and call upon you, in your capacity of Minister of Culture, to strongly oppose this amendment. We remain at your disposal to discuss this matter further.
Signatories
AEPO-ARTIS is a non-profit making organisation that represents 40 European performers’ collective management organisations from 30 different countries. The number of performers (musicians, actors and dancers), from the audio and audiovisual sector, represented by AEPO-ARTIS member organisations is estimated at more than 650,000.
EVA (European Visual Artists) represents the interests of authors’ collective management societies for the visual arts. 31 societies are gathered under its roof as members or observers. They manage collectively authors’ rights of close to 170.000 creators of works of fine art, illustration, photography, design, architecture and other visual works.
GESAC – Founded in 1990, the European Grouping of Societies of Authors and Composers represents 32 of the main copyright management societies (authors ‘societies) in the European Union, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland, administering the rights and remuneration of more than 1.2 million authors, composers and writers in a variety of sectors (music, audiovisual, literary and visual and graphic arts) and music publishers. As such GESAC is the largest organisation representing creators at the EU level.
IFRRO (International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations), is an international, independent, not-for-profit organisation representing collective management organisations for text and image materials (known as Reproduction Rights Organisations, or RROs), authors’ and publishers’ associations in the field of text and image-based works. RROs administer reproduction and other relevant rights, including certain digital rights, on behalf of both publishers and authors, including visual artists. With 161 members across nearly 90 countries, IFRRO plays a key role in the global copyright ecosystem.
SAA (the Society of Audiovisual Authors) is the umbrella association of European collective management organisations representing audiovisual authors. Its 33 members in 25 countries manage rights for over 174,000 film, television and multimedia European screenwriters and directors. The SAA supports audiovisual authors and promotes cultural diversity through policies that enable the dissemination of audiovisual authors’ works to the audience. CMOs’ role is to give easy, legal access to those works and ensure authors are fairly paid to encourage further creativity for the benefit of society.
