President Sarkozy on stimulating legal online offer of entertainment

France should stimulate the legal online offer of cultural goods, said President Nicolas Sarkozy in a new year’s speech last week.

In the light of the mandate of the Hadopi agency, that was established last week, Sarkozy named an “abundant and accessible” legal offer the best way to fight piracy.

Concerning movies, Sarkozy mentioned his intention to create a portal that catalogues the libraries of all video-on-demand service, so that users have a good overview of the availability.

Sarkozy proposed the extension of collective remuneration regime from terrestrial broadcasting to online environments in an effort to stimulate supply and compensate artists and producers for their work. He faced the music industry with an ultimatum to negotiate releasing the rights to their works on all platforms within one year. Failing that, the state would create an obligatory collective management system.

Furthermore, he insisted on reducing the costs of cultural goods by reducing VAT and subsidising the online consumption of music to young people by instating a “music card” on which the state doubles the credit that people buy.

These measures stem from the report of a commission established at the behest of France’s culture minister, Frédéric Mitterrand. The commission was headed by Patrick Zelnik, who also directs his own indie music label and is president of Impala, Europe’s association for indie music labels.

The commission draws many more conclusions. However, it is unsure whether France’s government will follow up on them. For example, the commission proposes that movies should be made available for video-on-demand sooner after theatrical release. For the music industry, similar as for movies, the state should sponsor the creation of a portal on which users can easily brows all music legally available on the Internet. Finally, the commission recommends that discussions on, amongst others, the lowering of the VAT be held on a European level.

13-01-2010