Reding aims at revising EU's market for digital content

Last week, Euro commissionar Viviane Reding (Information Society) has announced her plan to drastically revise the market for digital content in the EU. Especially the licencing policies need a thorough review. Reding made these announcements during a seminar of the Lisbon think tank.

Reding aims to facilitate access to digital content for consumers. The current legislative framework and the entertainment industry’s attitude towards innovating their business models make it too complicated for consumers to purchase access to digital content legally. Especially for the ‘born digital’ generation, 60% of which downloads illegally, the limited legal alternative is too meager.

Reding first wants to address the fragmented licencing policy for copyright. The regionally oriented licencing policies are outdated, says Reding. By creating one policy for the entire European Union, consumers are no longer limited (consumers currently depend on locally negotiated licences) and content providers profit from economies of scale. Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs indicated favour for a single European licence a few months ago.

In addition to the licencing policy, Reding wants to speed up digitising books, stimulate new business models for m-commerce and urge member states to rapidly adops digital television.