Minister of Cultural Affairs Åse Kleveland

Seminar on copyright and neighbouring rights in the digital era new challenges for right holders rights management and users opening statement

Holmenkollen Park Hotel Rica, tuesday May 28

Dear friends,

On behalf of the Norwegian Government and the Ministry of Cultural Affairs it gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to Oslo and to this seminar.

The initative to arrange this seminar is closely linked to the work of the Council of Europe. Under the auspicies of the Steering Committee on the Mass Media the Council has set up a Group of Specialists on the Protection of Right Holders in the Media Sector. The Royal Norwegian Ministry for Cultural Affairs, which also has responsibility for copyright questions, together with the Group of Specialists and the Media Section of the Directorate of Human Rights, wanted to highlight the challenges posed to right holders, rights management and users in the digital era. Consequently, the Norwegian authorities found the financial means to organise this seminar, which will precede the second meeting of the Group of Specialists.

The venue of the seminar is chosen not only because of its conference facilities, but also also because it in a symbolic way represents our point of departure, namely to meet present day's needs based on firm traditions. Not to mention - still both symbolic and litteraly - the possibilities it presents to the participans to have a good overwiew.

Let me take the opportunity to give you a very brief presentation of our Norwegian tradition in the copyright field. Our basis is a legislation which for many years have given a high level of protection both for authors and neighbouring right holders. Closely linked to this you will find different remuneration scheems and remuneration funds, all parts of our cultural policy . They may be based on government grants ,like the public lending right ,or levies.Traditionally they are managed collectively and the money are distributed as invidual grants and scholarships ,like the public lending right . We have a traditionally chosen collective solutions where we have found that individual rights and distribution of remuneration was either impossible or too expensive to administer. This tradition of collective arrangements has however coexisted with management based on individual rights, thus respecting the fundamental principles of copyright . Important in the overall picture which our guests will meet , are strong, professional organisations and professional collective societies .

It is our hope that this seminar will be fruitful and beneficial, not only for the participants of the seminar and the delegates in the Group of Specialists, but also for finding solutions that will have to emerge from the work which we all know will have to take place from here on at the regional, national and international levels.

I do not hesitate to state that copyright legislation is the most important field of cultural legislation. This legislation combines the world of ideas with the world of commerce. It ensures investments in creative work, ensures the moral and economic interests of the author,and the interests of holders of neighbouring rights, and fosters creativity.

Estimates made in several countries, among them Finland and the UK, show that the value added to the Gross National Product by enterprises and activities basing themselves on copyright legislation, amounts to between 3 and 5 per cent of the GNP. For Norway, this is equal to the added value of agriculture, foresting and mining . It encompasses activities ranging from the work of the individual artist, to the business of large international data firms. And - as we are all well aware of - this legislation is of primary concern for the international trade. Last but not least, it is of paramount importance while we continue building the information society.

Copyright legislation has faced challenges caused by technological development on many occasions, and over the years solutions have been found to questions raised concerning new forms of use, new types of works and new rights. Copyright legislation is yet again challenged by technological development.

It has been the underlying philosophy of this government that the possibilites offered by technological developments should be beneficial for the rightholders, at the same time as due regard should be given to the fact that we should take advantage of these developments for the benefit of society as a whole.

I am confident that solutions will be found. But nevertheless, the challenges posed by the digitisation, and by the internationalisation and, may I add - the commercialisation of cultural goods, has created a situation which we have possibly never experienced before.

The developments on the European scene during the past 10 years have, in a copyright perspective, been extremely rapid. While changes in this legislation -say 25 years ago- took years of analysis, reflection and discussions before implementation, we have lately experienced rapid changes in Europe, parallelled by international developments. We have seen the birth of a new, powerful organisation, the World Trade Organization, encompassing copyright and neighbouring rights in the TRIP's agreement, and we are all well aware of the developments in the World Intellectual Property Organization, which will call for a diplomatic conference in December this year to formulate a possible new Protocol to the Bern Convention,and hopefully also new instruments concerning neighbouring rights. In addition, the Council of Europe has developed important instruments, conventions as well as recommendations, in this field. The development of these instruments has matched, and even strongly influenced, the work within the European Union, which has been the prime engine as far as harmonization of European copyright is concerned.

It was in this context that this seminar was initiated in order to call for a pan-European dialogue. Little did we know then of the important conferences being scheduled shortly before and after this seminar. We are therefore especially happy to see that so many of you have devoted time to participate in this event, which we hope will complement the other initiatives taken.

The development of new electronic highways, and the possibilities offered by digital techniques in general, has presented us with new forms of dissimination of works and performances. It is often said that copyright legislation is an art of striking the balance between the different interests involved; this is, of course, also the situation when discussing copyright in the digital era.

When stating as a point of departure that the rightholders' interests must be taken into consideration, it follows that when striking this balance, the interests of the users -both the individual end user and those such as publishers and broadcasters - must be adequatly reflected. The same goes for the interests of the society at large. Equally, when we in Europe wish to harmonize protection at a higher level, we should also state firmly that this requires a certain responsibility on the part of the rightowners as well as a willingness to find solutions to the following question: how can we reach solutions whereby rights can be managed and cleared in an efficient way so that we are not overtaken by competition from, above all, American products which are developed in a copyright tradition quite different from the continental civil rights tradition.

The answer may turn out to be crucial when we strive to ensure that national and European content is found in digital format, be it on CD-Rom or the highways.

From a political point of view, there is obviously a connection between the willingness to increase the level of protection, and the ability and willingness to find effective ways of rights management and clearance of rights, although the answers may differ depending on categories of works and different users' needs. Let there be no doubt about it: as minister of Culture as well as a politician, my goal is to see national cultural products on the highway. I am among those who believe that not all roads leads to CD Rome - but on the other hand - without European alternatives in the electronic environment - our cultural future may eventually be at stake.

This is the background to our wish to bring participants from all over Europe to meet and discuss on a pan-European basis the general copyright questions posed in the digital era, and especially to focus on issues concerning management of rights. We are concerned not only about future works, but also existing works. We are concerned about the situation and rights of the rightholders and the users, and our aim was to create a meeting ground for the different kinds of interests. We envisaged this seminar as an opportunity to take stock of the new possibilities offered by technology itself, and as a forum for discussions in order to pave the way for further work. In this context, we also wanted to present some of the ideas developed among the Nordic countries, ideas that have proven to function well. And last but not least, we were eager to hear your views on the role of the legislator. I am therefore especially pleased by the willingness of international organisations to present their views, and to be represented, and it is a great pleasure to note that participants from altogether 24 countries are here today.

I would particularly like to thank the Council of Europe for its readiness to proceed with this work, and for the smooth and fruitful cooperation in the planning of the Seminar.

Success of course also depends on you, as participants. It is my hope that this Oslo meeting will take us a step forward.

And it is also my hope that those of you who are visiting Norway and Oslo for the first time will have the opportunity learn a little about our country.

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Lagt inn 8 juli 1996 av Statens forvaltningstjeneste, ODIN-redaksjonen