(3) Rapid technological developments continue to transform the way works and other subject matter are created, produced, distributed and exploited.
New business models and new actors continue to emerge.
Relevant legislation needs to be future-proof so as not to restrict technological development.
The objectives and the principles laid down by the Union copyright framework remain sound.
However, legal uncertainty remains, for both rightholders and users, as regards certain uses, including cross-border uses, of works and other subject matter in the digital environment.
As stated in the Commission Communication of 9 December 2015 entitled ‘Towards a modern, more European copyright framework’, in some areas it is necessary to adapt and supplement the existing Union copyright framework, while keeping a high level of protection of copyright and related rights. This Directive provides for rules to adapt certain exceptions and limitations to copyright and related rights to digital and cross-border environments, as well as for measures to facilitate certain licensing practices, in particular, but not only, as regards the dissemination of out-of-commerce works and other subject matter and the online availability of audiovisual works on video-on-demand platforms, with a view to ensuring wider access to content.
It also contains rules to facilitate the use of content in the public domain.
In order to achieve a well-functioning and fair marketplace for copyright, there should also be rules on rights in publications, on the use of works or other subject matter by online service providers storing and giving access to user-uploaded content, on the transparency of authors' and performers' contracts, on authors' and performers' remuneration, as well as a mechanism for the revocation of rights that authors and performers have transferred on an exclusive basis.
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(34) For the purpose of those licensing mechanisms, a rigorous and well-functioning collective management system is important.
Directive 2014/26/EU provides for such a system and that system includes in particular rules on good governance, transparency and reporting, as well as the regular, diligent and accurate distribution and payment of amounts due to individual rightholders.
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(50) Given the different traditions and experiences in relation to mechanisms of collective licensing with an extended effect across Member States, and their applicability to rightholders irrespective of their nationality or their Member State of residence, it is important to ensure that there is transparency and dialogue at Union level about the practical functioning of such mechanisms, including as regards the effectiveness of safeguards for rightholders, the usability of such mechanisms, their effect on rightholders who are not members of the collective management organisation, or on rightholders who are nationals of, or resident in, another Member State, and the impact on the cross-border provision of services, including the potential need to lay down rules to give such mechanisms cross-border effect within the internal market.
To ensure transparency, information about the use of such mechanisms under this Directive should be regularly published by the Commission.
Member States that have introduced such mechanisms should, therefore, inform the Commission about relevant national provisions and their application in practice, including the scope and types of licensing introduced on the basis of general provisions, the scale of licensing and the collective management organisations involved.
Such information should be discussed with Member States in the contact committee established in Article 12(3) of Directive 2001/29/EC.
The Commission should publish a report on the use of such mechanisms in the Union and their impact on licensing and rightholders, on the dissemination of cultural content and on the cross-border provision of services in the area of collective management of copyright and related rights, as well as on the impact on competition.
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(68) Online content-sharing service providers should be transparent with rightholders with regard to the steps taken in the context of cooperation.
As various actions could be undertaken by online_content-sharing_service_providers, they should provide rightholders, at the request of rightholders, with adequate information on the type of actions undertaken and the way in which they are undertaken.
Such information should be sufficiently specific to provide enough transparency to rightholders, without affecting business secrets of online_content-sharing_service_providers. Service providers should, however, not be required to provide rightholders with detailed and individualised information for each work or other subject matter identified.
That should be without prejudice to contractual arrangements, which could contain more specific provisions on the information to be provided where agreements are concluded between service providers and rightholders.
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(75) As authors and performers tend to be in the weaker contractual position when they grant licences or transfer their rights, they need information to assess the continued economic value of their rights, compared to the remuneration received for their licence or transfer, but they often face a lack of transparency.
Therefore, the sharing of adequate and accurate information by their contractual counterparts or their successors in title is important for the transparency and balance in the system governing the remuneration of authors and performers. That information should be up-to-date to allow access to recent data, relevant to the exploitation of the work or performance, and comprehensive in a way that it covers all sources of revenues relevant to the case, including, where applicable, merchandising revenues. As long as exploitation is ongoing, contractual counterparts of authors and performers should provide information available to them on all modes of exploitation and on all relevant revenues worldwide with a regularity that is appropriate in the relevant sector, but at least annually.
The information should be provided in a manner that is comprehensible to the author or performer and it should allow the effective assessment of the economic value of the rights in question.
The transparency obligation should nevertheless apply only where copyright relevant rights are concerned.
The processing of personal data, such as contact details and information on remuneration, that are necessary to keep authors and performers informed in relation to the exploitation of their works and performances, should be carried out in accordance with Article 6(1)(c) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679.
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(76) In order to ensure that exploitation-related information is duly provided to authors and performers also in cases where the rights have been sub-licensed to other parties who exploit the rights, this Directive entitles authors and performers to request additional relevant information on the exploitation of the rights, in cases where the first contractual counterpart has provided the information available to them, but that information is not sufficient to assess the economic value of their rights. That request should be made either directly to sub-licensees or through the contractual counterparts of authors and performers. Authors and performers, and their contractual counterparts, should be able to agree to keep the shared information confidential, but authors and performers should always be able to use the shared information for the purpose of exercising their rights under this Directive.
Member States should have the option, in compliance with Union law, to provide for further measures to ensure transparency for authors and performers.
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(77) When implementing the transparency obligation provided for in this Directive, Member States should take into account the specificities of different content sectors, such as those of the music sector, the audiovisual sector and the publishing sector, and all relevant stakeholders should be involved when deciding on such sector-specific obligations. Where relevant, the significance of the contribution of authors and performers to the overall work or performance should also be considered.
Collective bargaining should be considered as an option for the relevant stakeholders to reach an agreement regarding transparency.
Such agreements should ensure that authors and performers have the same level of transparency as or a higher level of transparency than the minimum requirements provided for in this Directive.
To enable the adaptation of existing reporting practices to the transparency obligation, a transitional period should be provided for.
It should not be necessary to apply the transparency obligation in respect of agreements concluded between rightholders and collective management organisations, independent management entities or other entities subject to the national rules implementing Directive 2014/26/EU, as those organisations or entities are already subject to transparency obligations under Article 18 of Directive 2014/26/EU.
Article 18 of Directive 2014/26/EU applies to organisations that manage copyright or related rights on behalf of more than one rightholder for the collective benefit of those rightholders. However, individually negotiated agreements concluded between rightholders and those of their contractual counterparts who act in their own interest should be subject to the transparency obligation provided for in this Directive.
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(79) Authors and performers are often reluctant to enforce their rights against their contractual partners before a court or tribunal.
Member States should therefore provide for an alternative dispute resolution procedure that addresses claims by authors and performers, or by their representatives on their behalf, related to obligations of transparency and the contract adjustment mechanism.
For that purpose, Member States should be able to either establish a new body or mechanism, or rely on an existing one that fulfils the conditions established by this Directive, irrespective of whether those bodies or mechanisms are industry-led or public, including when part of the national judiciary system.
Member States should have flexibility in deciding how the costs of the dispute resolution procedure are to be allocated.
Such alternative dispute resolution procedure should be without prejudice to the right of parties to assert and defend their rights by bringing an action before a court.
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(81) The provisions regarding transparency, contract adjustment mechanisms and alternative dispute resolution procedures laid down in this Directive should be of a mandatory nature, and parties should not be able to derogate from those provisions, whether in contracts between authors, performers and their contractual counterparts, or in agreements between those counterparts and third parties, such as non-disclosure agreements.
As a consequence, Article 3(4) of Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council (17) should apply to the effect that, where all other elements relevant to the situation at the time of the choice of applicable law are located in one or more Member States, the parties' choice of applicable law other than that of a Member State does not prejudice the application of the provisions regarding transparency, contract adjustment mechanisms and alternative dispute resolution procedures laid down in this Directive, as implemented in the Member State of the forum.
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