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Week ending May 8, 2010

MDLF - CAMP begins new life as ‘Sourcefabric’ – May 6, 2010
from Peter Whitehead/MDLF

On 10 May 2010, the Center for Advanced Media-Prague (CAMP) will fully launch as a wholly autonomous organization, Sourcefabric, dedicated to enabling quality journalism through open source software and professional services. Sourcefabric is established as a Czech non-profit organization with its headquarters in Prague and branches in Berlin and Toronto.

MDLF founded CAMP in 1998 as its new-media arm. It had recently become clear that securing CAMP's long-term future outside of MDLF would be the most effective way to provide it with the independence it needed to develop further. A private Swiss foundation is providing Sourcefabric with funding for at least three years.

The scale of the investment propels Sourcefabric into the ranks of one of the largest European open source projects for news and media.

"CAMP has implemented some truly outstanding projects over the past decade, providing valuable support to independent media in countries as varied as Indonesia, Belarus and Sierra Leone," said MDLF Managing Director Sasa Vucinic. "Spinning it off as Sourcefabric, an entirely independent organization with funding secured for at least three years, is a testament to all it has achieved."

Sourcefabric will take over the development of the open source software MDLF originally commissioned and released under the Campware brand. This includes the acclaimed Campsite content management system for media organizations and the Campcaster radio playout and automation system.

"We will greatly increase development of software development projects targeted at independent media," said Sourcefabric Executive Director Sava Tatic. "Sourcefabric's goal is to make the best software for media organizations, be they in Bamako or Basel. News media are just realizing the value, flexibility and power of open source, and we plan to firmly entrench it in the industry mainstream," he added.

The home of this expanded mission, a new website and community platform, will be launched on 10 May 2010 at www.sourcefabric.org.

ACT - COMMERCIAL BROADCASTERS WELCOME RECOGNITION OF CREATIVE INDUSTRIES IN EP REPORT ON THE DIGITAL AGENDA - May 5, 2010
from Utta Tuttlies/ACT

Brussels, 5 May 2010 –The Association of Commercial Television in Europe (ACT) welcomes today’s adoption of the report by Pilar del Castillo MEP on the “Digital Agenda for Europe”. The ACT represents one of the key pillars of the creative content industry, which according to a recent study contributes 6,9% or approximately Euro 860 billion to total European GDP and employs 6,5% of the total workforce in Europe, representing approximately 14 million workers. As indicated in the EP Report Europe’s cultural and creative industries thus contribute significantly to the European economy and to the promotion of cultural diversity, media pluralism and participatory democracy. ACT members welcome the recognition of the importance of our sector both in the EP Report on the Digital Agenda and in the Green Paper on Creative and Cultural Industries, adopted by the Commission last week.

Ross Biggam, Director General ACT, highlighted: “Commercial broadcasters can help deliver a successful Digital Agenda for Europe. Thanks to our continued investment in content and innovative services, European consumers have come to enjoy more choice than ever before. In the future it will be important to ensure continued investment in content creation, the highest level of consumer satisfaction through strong competition in the marketplace, a high level of copyright protection and the fight against piracy. There can be no meaningful digital economy without a vibrant, competitive content sector”.

Against this background a couple of points require particular attention:

§ Copyright: We welcome the recognition in the del Castillo Report of the need to guarantee the enforcement and protection of IPR. However, any proposal to overhaul the current copyright system should be considered with extreme caution. By allowing broadcasters and other commercial users to compete openly for exclusive rights, the current copyright system guarantees the ability for all to offer varied, pluralistic and rich content to European citizens. Commercial broadcasters rely on exclusivity to be able to invest in the development of new and innovative legal offers and no fewer than 720 on-demand services now offer audiovisual content in Europe.

§ Collective rights management: As commercial broadcasters we rely on collective rights management mainly for the clearance of musical rights embedded in our programmes. Otherwise we would need to obtain clearance from individual rights holders before being able to make a programme containing music available to the public. But, like any undertaking, collecting societies are subject to competition law and the del Castillo Report helpfully highlights the importance of transparency and competition among such organisations. When debating a copyright reform, a clear distinction between the music and audiovisual sectors must be made, as they face different challenges and require separate policy approaches.

§ Spectrum: Commercial broadcasters welcome the recognition of the potential problems of interference between existing and future uses of spectrum in the EP Report and call for an independent, authoritative study on this point.