keyboard_tab Media online 2019/0789 EN

(9) In order to facilitate the clearance of rights for the provision of ancillary_online_services across borders, it is necessary to provide for the establishment of the country of origin principle as regards the exercise of copyright and related rights relevant for acts that occur in the course of the provision of, the access to or the use of an ancillary_online_service.

  That principle should cover the clearance of all rights that are necessary for a broadcasting organisation to be able to communicate to the public or make available to the public its programmes when providing ancillary_online_services, including the clearance of any copyright and related rights in the works or other protected subject matter used in the programmes, for example the rights in phonograms or performances. That country of origin principle should apply exclusively to the relationship between rightholders, or entities representing rightholders, such as collective management organisations, and broadcasting organisations, and solely for the purpose of the provision of, the access to or the use of an ancillary_online_service.

  The country of origin principle should not apply to any subsequent communication to the public of works or other protected subject matter, by wire or wireless means, or to any subsequent making available to the public of works or other protected subject matter, by wire or wireless means, in such a way that members of the public may access them from a place and at a time individually chosen by them, or to any subsequent reproduction of the works or other protected subject matter which are contained in the ancillary_online_service.

(10) Given the specificities of the financing and licensing mechanisms for certain audiovisual works, which are often based on exclusive territorial licensing, it is appropriate, as regards television programmes, to limit the scope of application of the country of origin principle set out in this Directive to certain types of programmes. Those types of programmes should include news and current affairs programmes as well as a broadcasting organisation's own productions which are exclusively financed by it, including where the funds for the financing used by the broadcasting organisation for its productions come from public funds. For the purposes of this Directive, broadcasting organisations' own productions should be understood as covering productions carried out by a broadcasting organisation with the use of its own resources, but excluding productions commissioned by the broadcasting organisation to producers that are independent from the broadcasting organisation and co-productions. For the same reasons, the country of origin principle should not apply to television broadcasts of sports events under this Directive.

  The country of origin principle should apply only when programmes are used by the broadcasting organisation in its own ancillary_online_services. It should not apply to the licensing of a broadcasting organisation's own productions to third parties, including to other broadcasting organisations. The country of origin principle should not affect the freedom of rightholders and broadcasting organisations to agree, in compliance with Union law, on limitations, including territorial limitations, to the exploitation of their rights.

(11) The country of origin principle set out in this Directive should not result in any obligation for broadcasting organisations to communicate or make available to the public programmes in their ancillary_online_services, or to provide such ancillary_online_services in a Member State other than the Member State of their principal establishment.

(14) Operators of retransmission services can use different technologies when they retransmit simultaneously, in an unaltered and unabridged manner, for reception by the public, an initial transmission from another Member State of television or radio programmes. The programme-carrying signals can be obtained by operators of retransmission services from broadcasting organisations, which themselves transmit those signals to the public, in different ways, for example by capturing the signals transmitted by the broadcasting organisations or receiving the signals directly from them through the technical process of direct_injection.

  Such operators' services can be offered on satellite, digital terrestrial, mobile or closed circuit IP-based and similar networks or through internet access services as defined in Regulation (EU) 2015/2120 of the European Parliament and of the Council (6).

  Operators of retransmission services using such technologies for their retransmissions should therefore be covered by this Directive and benefit from the mechanism that introduces mandatory collective management of rights. In order to ensure that there are sufficient safeguards against the unauthorised use of works and other protected subject matter, which is particularly important in the case of services that are paid for, retransmission services which are offered through internet access services should be included in the scope of this Directive only where those retransmission services are provided in an environment in which only authorised users can access the retransmissions and the level of content security provided is comparable to the level of security for content transmitted over managed networks, such as cable or closed circuit IP-based networks, in which content that is retransmitted is encrypted.

  Those requirements should be feasible and adequate.

(15) To retransmit initial transmissions of television and radio programmes, operators of retransmission services have to obtain an authorisation from the holders of the exclusive right of communication to the public of works or other protected subject matter.

  In order to provide legal certainty to the operators of retransmission services and to overcome disparities in national law regarding such retransmission services, rules similar to those that apply to cable retransmission as defined in Directive 93/83/EEC should apply.

  The rules under that Directive include the obligation to exercise the right to grant or refuse authorisation to an operator of a retransmission service through a collective management organisation.

  Under those rules, the right to grant or refuse authorisation as such remains intact, and only the exercise of that right is regulated to some extent.

  Rightholders should receive appropriate remuneration for the retransmission of their works and other protected subject matter.

  When determining reasonable licensing terms, including the license fee, for a retransmission in accordance with Directive 2014/26/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (7), the economic value of the use of the rights in trade, including the value allocated to the means of retransmission, should, inter alia, be taken into account.

  This should be without prejudice to the collective exercise of the right to payment of a single equitable remuneration for performers and phonogram producers for the communication to the public of commercial phonograms as provided for in Article 8(2) of Directive 2006/115/EC, and to Directive 2014/26/EU, in particular its provisions concerning the rights of rightholders with regard to the choice of a collective management organisation.

(20) In order to ensure that there is legal certainty and to maintain a high level of protection for rightholders, it is appropriate to provide that when broadcasting organisations transmit their programme-carrying signals by direct_injection only to signal distributors without directly transmitting their programmes to the public, and the signal distributors send those programme-carrying signals to their users to allow them to watch or listen to the programmes, only one single act of communication to the public is deemed to occur in which both the broadcasting organisations and the signal distributors participate with their respective contributions. The broadcasting organisations and the signal distributors should therefore obtain authorisation from the rightholders for their specific contribution to the single act of communication to the public.

  Participation of a broadcasting organisation and a signal distributor in that single act of communication to the public should not give rise to joint liability on the part of the broadcasting organisation and the signal distributor for that act of communication to the public.

  Member States should remain free to provide at national level for the arrangements for obtaining authorisation for such a single act of communication to the public, including the relevant payments to be made to the rightholders concerned, taking into account the respective exploitation of the works and other protected subject matter, by the broadcasting organisation and signal distributor, related to the single act of communication to the public.

  Signal distributors face, in a similar manner to operators of retransmission services, a significant burden for rights clearance, except as regards rights held by broadcasting organisations. Member States should therefore be allowed to provide that signal distributors benefit from a mechanism of mandatory collective management of rights for their transmissions in the same way and to the same extent as operators of retransmission services for retransmissions covered by Directive 93/83/EEC and this Directive.

  Where signal distributors merely provide broadcasting organisations with ‘technical means’, within the meaning of the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, to ensure that the broadcast is received or to improve the reception of that broadcast, the signal distributors should not be considered to be participating in an act of communication to the public.

(21) When broadcasting organisations transmit their programme-carrying signals directly to the public, thereby carrying out an initial act of transmission, and also simultaneously transmit those signals to other organisations through the technical process of direct_injection, for example to ensure the quality of the signals for retransmission purposes, the transmissions by those other organisations constitute a separate act of communication to the public from the one carried out by the broadcasting organisation.

  In those situations, the rules on retransmissions laid down in this Directive and in Directive 93/83/EEC, as amended by this Directive, should apply.

(25) This Directive respects the fundamental rights and observes the principles recognised in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

  While this Directive may result in an interference with the exercise of the rights of rightholders, insofar as mandatory collective management takes place for the exercise of the right of communication to the public with regard to retransmission services, it is necessary to prescribe the application of mandatory collective management in a targeted manner and to limit it to specific services.