Media News - Friday, July 10, 2009

European publishers call on E.U. to protect copyright

Leading European newspaper and magazine publishers on Thursday called on the European Commission to strengthen copyright protection as a way to lay the groundwork for new ways to generate revenue online. Magazine and newspaper owners asked for help from Viviane Reding, the media and telecommunications commissioner. The publishers said widespread use of their work by online news aggregators and other Web sites was undermining their efforts to develop an online business models at a time when readers and advertisers are defecting from newspapers and magazines. The petition echoes other recent calls from publishers for greater copyright protection as they try to move beyond a business models based largely on advertising and try to generate more revenue from users. Only a handful of newspapers or magazines, including The Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times, have had success charging readers to use their sites. The initiative grew out of a campaign in Germany, led by Axel Springer, which publishes the tabloid Bild, to strengthen copyright law in that country. German publishers want to create a so-called neighboring right for publishers, similar to protections that already exist for music publishers and other content owners. The right would give publishers greater control over secondary use of their work that generates revenue. Publishers have not said publicly what they would do with such a right, but executives say one possibility would be to try to get business users to pay for access to online content. (New York Times)

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