Copyright

Screenwriters should be properly remunerated for the use of their work online

The recent study on the remuneration of audiovisual authors pointed out that the median audiovisual author received 9% of their audiovisual income from secondary sources, including payments through Collective Management Organisations (CMOs).

However this income can be of significant importance to creators beyond its immediate value in terms of its usefulness in evening out the worst impact of the instability of authors income, by making payments which can arrive at times of low levels of – or in the absence of – paid employment.

The importance of this principle is particularly marked in the area of online exploitation. As a general fact, screenwriters are not remunerated at all for the use of their work online, despite the extraordinary amount of money being generated from this form of distribution.

A basic policy goal of FSE is to ensure that writers are properly remunerated for the use of their work online. In that context FSE supported, with colleagues in FERA, the campaign by SAA (the European organisation of audiovisual collective management organisations – CMOs) for an unwaivable right to remuneration of the use of work online.

The passage for the Copyright Directive did not commit to the introduction of an unwaivable right to remuneration but the principle is not excluded from the Directive.  At a policy level FSE continues to support the concept and will support its introduction where and when feasible, while also supporting any other initiatives which would have the same effect.