Following the Vitorino recommendations –contested by FIM– the latest series of attacks on the private copy levy has come in the form of a British government bill called Modernising Copyright.
This text, which introduces a private copy exception into British legislation, adopts an unprecedented approach by deeming it fair that such an exception should not be accompanied by any compensation for rightholders. By depriving such rightholders of legitimate income, which as it happens they receive practically in entirety from Member States of the European Union, this provision will inevitably foster the return of technological protection measures that have been denounced time after time by consumers and which foster unfair sharing of income between artists and producers.
FIM considers that introducing non-compensated private copy exception contravenes European legislation. Consequently, it is unreservedly backing its British member union BMU in its campaign to have the text reviewed.