An open letter to members of the EU – Parliament

OPEN LETTER FROM ARTISTS, CREATIVE AND CULTURAL WORKERS

* Self-expression is a human right *

* Internet censorship does not create a fair income *

Dear Members of the Parliament,

We as artists, creative and cultural workers appeal to you as representatives of the European Parliament:

The proposed Copyright Directive is not in our interests. We will gain no significant revenue from it, but it will reduce our ability to create new cultural works and find audiences for it.

Take responsibility for an internet that works for cultural producers and is free from censorship, and do not agree to the EU Copyright Directive in this form. Article 11 and 13 are fundamentally against our interests.

Currently open letters are circulating that are claiming that the new directive would enable a „free“ internet by strengthening the copyright holders in relation to commercial providers and thus promote a „fairer“ form of „participation“ and „renumeration“. None of this will happen.

The directive will not lead to:

  • higher incomes for artists
  • guarantee of non-reproducibility of one’s own work
  • protection from theft of ideas
  • protection from piracy
  • reduce the monopoly position of the dominant group of social media companies

What it will lead to:

  • censorship on the internet
  • containment of creative exchange
  • transfer of the judicial sovereignty to private decision-makers
  • wrongful decisions due to algorithmic bias
  • impediment of fair procedures which then will be neither open nor individual
  • enablement of abuse of power through non-public decision-making processes
  • abusive interpretation for the own benefit of the commissioned platforms
  • exclusion of self-uploaded material that even meets the criteria of copyright law but categorizes as further prohibited content such as pornography, insult, depiction of violence, terrorism etc.
  • uncertainty and self-censorship instead of motivation to creativity and self-expression

We also want to point out that we are highly critical of how platforms cash in on unpaid labour by countless contributors – not just artists – and that we must find new models for how the revenue of these value-added processes can be redistributed more equally.

We therefore appeal to you: Say NO – vote against the Copyright Directive!

Signatories