Federation of European Publishers

TDM opt-out protocol

fep-fee admin — 2023-06-21T10:51:47Z

On 5 June, FEP co-organised a webinar with AIE and EDRLab on the machine-readable Text and Data Mining (TDM) Protocol that was developed to allow publishers to opt-out of their works from TDM activities (including AI training). The Protocol, its objectives and functioning were presented and the audience had the opportunity to ask both technical and legal questions about the use of the protocol. With the rise of generative AI, it is important to underline that the EU TDM exception and its opt-out mechanism are the only way to legally ensure that publisher content cannot be mined to train an AI (for purposes other than public research). While further improvements of the Protocol are possible in the future, it is already ready to use and FEP encourages publishers to adopt it, so it may become a de facto standard.

Link to the TDM opt protocol: https://www.w3.org/2022/tdmrep/

For more information:
Quentin Deschandelliers
Legal Advisor
qdeschandelliers@fep-fee.eu

FEP position paper on Artificial Intelligence (AI)

fep-fee admin — 2023-06-16T07:10:00Z

On the occasion of its General Assembly in Paris on 15 June, the Federation of European Publishers members adopted a position paper on Artificial Intelligence. The paper stresses the opportunities that AI can provide for the book value chain to optimise production and distribution processes and provide new insights to benefit all.

At the same time, the paper emphasises that AI must comply with copyright and intellectual property rules and is not exempted from copyright rules, particularly when it uses pre-existing works. European publishers underline that is fundamental that proportionate transparency obligations should apply when AI is deployed and that AI developers should guarantee the transparency of their training dataset.

Download the position paper

Geo-blocking

fep-fee admin — 2021-08-10T12:18:43Z

FEP closely follows the discussions around geo-blocking, as it directly impacts the commercial sustainability of European publishers. Geo-blocking primarily designates the practice of limiting access to content or to a service on the basis of the geographical location of a user. It is a commercial practice that is justified by the need to respect both the territoriality of rights and the numerous different rules that the book sector must follow in the different Member States (VAT, consumer protection, fixed price, etc.). Despite this practice, consumers currently have little difficulty in finding the books they want in the digital single market.

Putting an end to unjustified geo-blocking has been identified over the past few years as a political priority to achieve the European Digital Single Market. FEP, along with the rest of the creative sector, has always advocated that geo blocking practices in the book sector are justified by objective legal and practical constraints that would make an imposition of unrestricted digital book sales across borders in the entire EU unsustainable for many publishers and booksellers. This would also be unnecessary for consumers, given the high level of accessibility of digital books.

The European Commission acknowledged this in its first short-term review of the Geo blocking Regulation, published in November 2020. The exercise was carried out to evaluate the implementation of the Regulation thus far and to assess the opportunity of extending its scope to digital copyrighted content. The report does not propose an extension of the scope of the Regulation, concluding that it would not necessarily bring substantial benefits to consumers and could be detrimental to some operators.

Moreover, it is considered premature to talk about a review in scope after two years form the entry into force of the Regulation. In May 2016, the European Commission proposed a Regulation on geo-blocking within the internal market in order to prevent discrimination based on the nationality, place of residence or place of establishment of customers.

After long and difficult negotiations, the Regulation finally entered into force in March 2018 and took effect on 3 December 2018. The text forbids traders from blocking or limiting customers' access to their online service and from redirecting them to a version of their service that is different from the one the customer originally sought to access, unless explicit consent was given. Traders shall not apply different general conditions of access to their goods or services when the trader sells goods and those goods are not delivered cross border, and when the trader provides electronically supplied services, except those providing access to and use of copyright-protected works.

The prohibition regarding electronically supplied services shall not apply to traders exempted from VAT registration according to the threshold system. Prohibitions shall also not apply when other provisions in EU or Member State law prevent the trader from selling the goods, or providing the services, to certain customers or to customers in certain territories; and with respect to sales of books, when traders are required to apply different prices to customers in certain territories under the laws of Member States in accordance with EU law.

After difficult negotiations with the European Parliament, copyrighted digital content services (including e-books) sold online were kept out of the scope of the Regulation, but this exclusion was subject to a two-year review clause accompanied by an assessment of whether to include them in the scope or not. The Commission tasked a consortium of consultants to carry out a study on the scope of the Regulation to be delivered around December 2019. The review clause was to be applied by 23rd March 2020, based on an Impact Assessment from the Commission, as well as the new study and a consultation open to all stakeholders. The study was meant to factually analyse the situation in terms of geo-blocking, including concerning the exclusion of copyright protected digital content from the scope of the Regulation, with a sector-by-sector approach.

The publication of the study was delayed due to the COVID-19 crisis, which mobilised all the Commission's energy and focus; it finally took place on 30 November 2020. The report does not propose to extend the scope of the Regulation to copyright-protected content and plans for a new review in two more years, stating that further assessment and considerations are needed and there is insufficient evidence that copyright protected content would not suffer from inclusion. In the meantime, the Commission will look especially at the audiovisual sector, and launch an industry dialogue to explore the potential for improvement of the availability of content across borders.

With regard to the e-book sector, the report confirms several points made by FEP: it acknowledges that the demand is low and that imposing a ban of geo blocking would have a limited effect on consumers, and a detrimental impact on smaller booksellers. A group of MEPs in the Internal Market committee of the European Parliament remain convinced of the need to abolish geo-blocking in the content sector at all costs.

FEP will keep engaging with policymakers to explain the importance of addressing the issues that make it too complex or costly for publishers and booksellers to sell digital books across borders outside of homogeneous linguistic areas.

Trade

fep-fee admin — 2021-08-10T12:15:48Z

The EU is a major trade power due to the importance of the European Single Market and therefore concluded, or is negotiating, trade agreements with countries and regions all around the world. These trade agreements are essentials to facilitate access of goods and services to and from the European markets. European publishers are strongly export-oriented as one-fifth of their turnover comes from export, amounting to € 4 - 5 billion per year. FEP therefore follows European trade policy as counterfeiting and piracy in third countries affects European companies, including publishers, on a large scale.

There are three types of EU Trade Agreements: Customs Unions, which eliminate customs duties in bilateral trade and establish joint customs tariffs for foreign importers; Association Agreements (alongside Stabilisation Agreements, Free Trade Agreements and Economic Partnership Agreements), which strive to remove or reduce customs tariffs in bilateral trade; and Partnership and Cooperation Agreements, which provide a general framework for bilateral economic relations without touching customs tariffs.

Intellectual property rights are regularly included by the Commission in dedicated chapters during the negotiations of trade agreements in order to ensure the proper protection of European rightsholders' legitimate interests abroad. In addition, the EU regularly hosts IP dialogues with third countries (for instance with China, Russia, Ukraine or Brazil) which are also opportunities to give feedback on their IPR legislation, to help address problems that EU industries encounter in their daily operations and to exchange best practices and to discuss concrete issues. Through these IP dialogues, the Commission aims to establish a positive relation with local authorities, to create a favourable atmosphere for discussion, and to find solutions for cases reported by European rightsholders.

In March 2019, DG TRADE launched a public consultation to identify third countries where IPR protection and enforcement is a cause for concern, as well as to update the European Commission's report on the protection and enforcement of IPR rights in third countries. The report based on this consultation was released in January 2020.

According to the findings, the level of counterfeiting and piracy remains high and is reinforced by weak IP enforcement as well as weak sanctions and penalties in a number of third countries. The report also takes stock of the evolution of the situation in some key third countries (such as China, India or Indonesia) as well as the bilateral actions taken, such as through IP cooperation programs or IPR SME helpdesks.

In November 2020, FEP submitted a new contribution for the 2020 update of the report. In February 2020, the Commission launched a public consultation to update its Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List. The aim was to identify online and physical marketplaces (cyberlockers, stream ripping websites, peer-to-peer, etc.) located outside of the European Union, that engage in or facilitate substantial IPR infringements and, in particular, piracy and counterfeiting. The list, managed by 33 DG TRADE, aims to encourage the operators of these marketplaces, local enforcement authorities and governments to take action in cracking down on IPR abuse as well as to raise awareness of problematic markets among consumers.

In May 2020, FEP submitted a contribution to this list to reflect the challenges faced by publishers. In June 2020, the Commission announced it would undertake a Trade Policy Review. Its main objectives are to ensure the continuous flow of goods and services worldwide in the context of a more challenging environment, to reform the World Trade Organisation and to make trade part of the European “Open Strategic Autonomy”, which aims to reinforce the EU's international leadership, increase its protection against unfair practices and allow it to assert its rights under international law and trade agreements. In September 2020, FEP organised events with IPKey Latin America to discuss the challenges for publishers in Latin America and how the new Copyright Directive could be used as a model for the continent.

FEP praised the collaboration with DG Trade to help protect the rights of publishers in third countries and explained the effects of piracy in the region on European publishers as well as the numerous factors contributing to it in Latin America. In March 2021, FEP organised a meeting with DG Trade together with IPA to do a general review of the current trade negotiations and processes involving IP protection and to share the difficulties faced by publishers in a number of third countries.

Accessibility

fep-fee admin — 2021-08-10T12:12:21Z

Offering the chance to all citizens to have access to the books we publish is now made easier by appropriate technology developed together by representatives of the Visually Impaired Persons' community and the book world. More and more e-books are made accessible from the outset. It may seem simple – however, for many genres, accessibility raises some challenges which are best addressed at early production stages and with specialised staff. It is our joint challenge to work towards the greatest accessibility possible and, for those works that cannot be made accessible, to cooperate with the organisations serving the persons with disabilities so that these books are also accessible.

Note this date – 28 June 2025. On this date, European legislation (called the “European Accessibility Act”, passed a month before the much better-known “Copyright in the Digital Single Market”) will apply to all e-books sold in the European Union (save a few exceptions such as e-books published by micro-enterprises* or which would require a fundamental alteration or for which accessibility would represent a disproportionate burden).

This applies not just to e-books published in the European Union, but to e-books from all over the world being sold to European citizens. So, how do we get there? Two paths. First, raise awareness. Second, train publishers. Raising awareness, as even today some publishers around Europe and many more around the globe are unaware of their future obligations.

So, during the 2020 Frankfurt Book Fair, FEP and IPA organised a webinar with the participation of the European Commission and the World Intellectual Property Organisation as well as experts for the publishing sector and the whole e-book chain.

In 2021, both organisations will again put their forces together to inform publishers about their obligations and give them hints on the way forward. The webinar is foreseen for 20 October. More information on our social media and website closer to the date. Raise awareness – take two: an ad hoc group was formed at the request of FEP members to discuss some interpretations of the legislation and to exchange best practices. The group has met every two months and is open to all FEP members. The group is also liaising with the Commission to exchange on its work and to support the current open formats as technical specifications as opposed to starting a new standardisation process (lengthy and possibly counter-productive).

Training publishers is obviously not something entering into FEP competences, yet we must be supportive of the various efforts happening in Europe. We can do that by coordinating with them: for example, by liaising with an Erasmus+ project aimed at producing open learning resources for the publishing sector or by organising a LIA webinar for FEP members on 1 June. Everyone involved in a training programme is welcomed to share it with FEP, so that we can all together move towards the goal of increased accessibility.

While we are doing all this positive, effective work to reach the objectives - at least for e-books - of allowing all readers to access an e-book at the same time and under the same conditions, the European Commission is considering 30 whether the current implementation of the 2013 Marrakesh Treaty (consisting of exceptions for visually impaired persons) is sufficient or whether it should be expanded to other works than the currently covered print works, or other disabilities.

FEP's answer was loud and clear, as with the European Accessibility Act: the issue will be mostly addressed for e-books. We stressed that instead of considering whether to open the Treaty's implementation in Europe, the Commission should reflect on whether the implementation of this Directive has had a significant negative impact on the commercial availability of works in accessible formats for beneficiary persons (as foreseen by the text in a report expected in 2023), especially in light of the increasing number of titles both accessible and commercially available.

FEP keeps in touch with the Commission on this issue. *A micro-enterprise is a business employing fewer than 10 people, and with an annual turnover or a total balance sheet which does not surpass 2 million Euros.

Taxation

fep-fee admin — 2021-08-10T12:08:47Z

After the Directive (EU) 2018/1713 entered into force at the end of 2018, a wave of adoption of reduced rates of VAT on digital publications followed across Europe; made possible by the Directive. Up to May 2020, this resulted in 18 Member States, as well as several EEA and candidate countries, applying reduced rates of VAT to digital publications. This also includes the UK, with the largest e-book market in Europe. The last twelve months have seen discussions in countries that still have not taken up the possibility, though no permanent changes have been made. However, the COVID-19 crisis has prompted several governments to implement temporary measures, including the decrease of VAT rates applying to all books from both standard and already reduced levels.

FEP campaigned unrelentingly for the Directive on VAT rates on e-publications to be proposed by the Commission and to be endorsed by the Member States. Since its entry into force, FEP has been gathering information on implementation at national level and supporting its members on interpretation and in discussions with their respective governments. We will keep doing so in order to maximise the uptake of reduced or zero rates on books and journals.

The possibility to apply reduced rates of VAT to books has been enshrined in European legislation (and in that of many Member States) for a long time, in recognition of the cultural, social and economic value of books and reading. FEP relentlessly supports this attitude and encourages its preservation and expansion.

The option, of course, applied first to print publications and was widely taken up: today 25 out of 27 EU Member States allow reduced or zero VAT rates on printed books, as well as the UK, EEA members Iceland and Norway, and candidate country Serbia. Due to the nature of fiscal law, as the book evolved with technology and embraced new formats and supports, the inclusion of new types of books in the scope of reduced rates required legislative changes.

In May 2009, a new Directive on VAT rates extended the possible application of reduced rates to books on all physical supports, such as CDs, DVDs, USB sticks. However, it excluded downloads and online access, which as electronic services must normally be taxed at the full rate. As of April 2021, 19 Member States have taken advantage of this provision. However, differences remained in the fiscal treatment of books based on their format and means of delivery. FEP started an extensive campaign, cooperating with representatives of magazines and newspapers, and for years advocated for the VAT framework to be adapted to technological progress. The European Commission showed awareness of the issue, but the services in charge of taxation had a negative stance toward the use of reduced rates. Nonetheless, pressure mounted, and the Commission increasingly looked at the different treatment of print and digital publications. The European Parliament repeatedly expressed support for the cause, whereas Member States had diverse views. As discussions continued, some Member States took the initiative.

As of January 2012, France and 26 Luxembourg began applying reduced VAT rates to all kinds of books, regardless of the support. In July 2012, the Commission commenced an infringement procedure against them and in 2013, referred the matter to the Court of Justice of the EU, which ruled against the two Member States in March 2015. Meanwhile, in January 2015, Italy began applying reduced rates of VAT on e-books as well; while Luxembourg re-established the standard rate in May 2015. The Juncker Commission started in 2014 with a cautious approach, which gradually evolved into increasing support, manifested in several high-level declarations in 2015.

The Commission's Action Plan for a definitive VAT system of April 2016 announced that the specific issue of e-publications would be addressed in a proposal under the DSM Strategy; the Council invited the Commission to put forward its proposal, which it did in December. Shortly after, in March 2017, the European Court of Justice ruled that the VAT discrimination was justified under the current legislative framework. In June 2017, the European Parliament adopted a consultative report fully in support of the Commission's proposal. Political infighting on a different file kept the proposal blocked in the Council for almost two years, despite broad support among Member States. Finally, in October 2018 the Council reached a political agreement, which was adopted in November. Council Directive (EU) 2018/1713 of 6 November 2018 amending Directive 2006/112/ EC as regards rates of value added tax applied to books, newspapers and periodicals, entered into force on 4 December 2018.

Reduced VAT can now apply to the “supply, including on loan by libraries, of books, newspapers and periodicals either on physical means of support or supplied electronically or both (including brochures, leaflets and similar printed matter, children's picture, drawing or colouring books, music printed or in manuscript form, maps and hydrographic or similar charts), other than publications wholly or predominantly devoted to advertising and other than publications wholly or predominantly consisting of audible music or video content.” Reduced rates on e-publications are optional. Super-reduced and zero rates are only available in Member States that already had them when the new Directive was proposed. Adoption of the Directive is now widespread, with 23 countries applying reduced rates to e-books among EU Member States, candidate countries and the EEA.

In a few cases, the decision was made in the framework of measures to face the COVID-19 crisis. In addition, several countries have taken temporary measures to tackle the COVID-19 crisis, affecting the rate that applies to books (Germany) or targeting books directly with specific reductions 27 (Austria, Bulgaria – the latter having adopted for the first time a reduced rate of VAT for books).

Education

fep-fee admin — 2021-08-10T12:02:36Z

FEP follows initiatives and discussions that affect the educational publishing sector. Though education is an area in which the EU has no legislative power, modernisation of education is high on the agenda of the EU Institutions and education policies implemented by individual countries have a significant impact on publishers. The EU plans to establish a European Education Area by 2025, and the Commission is working on the implementation of its recently updated Digital Education Action Plan.

To address the specificities of the sector, FEP collaborates with European members of the IPA Educational Publishers Forum, involving them in advocacy and drawing from their expertise. FEP attends relevant events and presents its position to the EU institutions. FEP has also been invited to the meetings of the IP in Education Network launched by the EUIPO which gathers national IP offices, ministries of education and other experts to increase awareness of the value of IP among students and teachers.

FEP is engaging with the Commission on the implementation of the new Digital Education Action Plan. FEP upholds the value of educational publishers in providing curricula-compliant quality learning materials in all formats, in a competitive environment. FEP maintains that Open Educational Resources (OER) need not be an alternative or antagonist to professionally produced content but can complement it. However, the production of OER with public funds to substitute textbooks constitutes unfair competition to educational publishers and can jeopardise the whole sector, while at the same time being a very inefficient use of resources, as well as a threat to the independence and pluralism of education. Moreover, the notion of OER should not lead to infringement on the rights of educational content producers.

FEP also looks at topics such as use of data and the role of Big Tech in education and calls for research on the impact of digital on learning. These matters overlap with broader discussions on copyright; in this context, FEP looks at the implementation of the exception for illustration for teaching. The EU has addressed the topic of education in several instances, with OER initially in the spotlight.

Examples: EC Communication ‘Rethinking Education' (2012), with a stated aim to scale up the use of ICT and OER in education; Council Conclusions on Rethinking Education (2013), inviting Member States to optimise ICT-supported learning and access to OER; EC Communication ‘Opening up Education' (2013), emphasising potential of ICT and OER and encouraging production of public educational materials; EP reports on the Communication (2013), supporting the notion of open resources, and on new technologies and OER (2014); Council debate on OER and digital learning (2013); Council Conclusions (2014), encouraging supply of OER and other digital educational materials, with due regard to copyright and licensing issues; EC/ Council report on New Priorities for European Cooperation in education and training (2015), recommending use of ICT and availability and 20 quality of open and digital educational resources.

Attention then shifted from OER to cross border uses and MOOCs: EC Communication ‘Improving and Modernising Education' focused on teacher training, quality, inclusion; EC Roadmap ‘An agenda for the modernisation of higher education' (2017) focused on skills, inclusion, innovation; EC Communication ‘A renewed EU agenda for higher education' (2017) followed the roadmap, also mentioning the potential of OER; Council conclusions on the Communication (2017) encouraged Member States to make higher education more flexible via blended learning and OER.

The EC's Digital Education Action Plan (2018), aimed at adapting education to the digital age, marked a partial return of the topic, stating that education could benefit from new tools, materials and OER. Afterwards came: EP reports on modernisation of education (2018), recommending assessing the quality of e-learning, MOOCs and open access resources, and on ‘Education in the digital era' (2018), insisting on potential benefits of digitising education but also warning against downsides; Council conclusions (2018) on a European Education Area, recommending innovative use of digital technologies.

In September 2020, the Commission adopted an update of the Digital Education Action Plan, and a Communication on achieving the European Education Area by 2025. The updated DEAP's strategic priorities are to be reached via infrastructure, connectivity and high-quality learning content. There is no mention of OER, but a lot of emphasis on MOOCs and on quality content – and a proposal to develop a European Digital Education Content Framework. The vision for the EEA identifies six dimensions: quality; inclusion and gender equality; green and digital transitions; teachers; higher education; and a stronger Europe in the world. Not much is said about content but the document states that funding available through the Recovery and Resilience Facility should support investments in education, from infrastructure to trainings, digital devices or the funding for OER. The Parliament followed up with a report on Shaping Digital Education Policy (March 2021) and one on the EEA, due in mid-2021. At national level, publishers are concerned by various cases of governmental interference in the educational publishing market, often linked to OER projects in broader education digitisation initiative.

These concerns frequently envisage the substitution of good quality, professionally published educational resources and, in many cases, result in a waste of resources, or worse in the stifling of teachers' freedom of choice and in the imposition of politicised material

Copyright

fep-fee admin — 2021-08-10T11:59:38Z

FEP is active on European initiatives and discussions related to copyright, which is core to publishers' activities and to the sustainability of the overall publishing sector. The protection of exclusive rights, freedom of contract and the fight against piracy are key aspects defended by FEP. To this end, FEP collaborates with other cultural sectors and attends relevant events to present its position to the EU institutions. Despite the recent adoption of the new Copyright on the Digital Single Market Directive, copyright remains relevant in current legislative debates concerning platform regulation.

Under the new von der Leyen Commission, Thierry Breton, in charge of the internal market, is the Vice-President and Commissioner responsible for copyright policy which is dealt with at a technical level by DG CNECT.

In the Parliament, the relevant committees are JURI (Legal Affairs), IMCO (Internal Market and Consumer Protection), ITRE (Industry, Research and Energy), and CULT (Culture and Education). In the Council, copyright issues are discussed by the Working Group on Intellectual Property.

In April 2019, after two and a half years of intense negotiations, the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market was adopted; marking the most significant European copyright review since 2001. The adopted text introduced four new mandatory exceptions for illustrations for teaching; the use of text and data mining for research and non-research purposes; and the preservation of cultural heritage. It also created a legal mechanism to facilitate collective licensing agreements for all types of out-of-commerce works which are held in a permanent collection of cultural heritage institutions. It gave Member States the option of granting book publishers the right to claim a share of the compensation for the uses of the work made under an exception.

The Directive stops the irresponsible behaviour of digital platforms who communicate copyright protected works to the public by formally recognising that they are liable for the content hosted on their services by introducing new obligations for platforms to obtain licencing agreements with rightsholders and to deploy measures in cooperation with them to fight effectively against unauthorised content.

Finally, authors were granted mandatory mechanisms to ensure they receive appropriate and proportionate remuneration; to request additional remuneration from their contractual partners when revenues generated by the work are too low; to settle disputes related to the application of obligations imposed on publishers and producers; and transparency obligations according to which authors would receive information on the exploitation of their work from their contractual partners. They were also granted the possibility to revoke the rights on their works they transferred or licensed should there be no exploitation of the work by the contractual partner. Following the adoption of the Directive, the Commission published guidance on 4 June 2021 for the implementation of Article 17, following a stakeholder dialogue process in which FEP participated.

In December 2020, the Commission proposed two new Regulations to update the rules for online platforms. The Digital Services Act (DSA) covers the obligations of digital services and the Digital Markets Act (DMA) introduces ex-ante rules for “gatekeeper” services. Due to their large scope and the policy they modernise, this package is considered to be the most important EU digital reform in 20 years and will be politically sensitive. The texts are not expected to come into force before 2024.

The DSA updates the existing E-Commerce Directive (from 2000) while introducing new obligations in the field of content moderation and transparency. The existing liability regime is preserved, while the requirement for notice and action are harmonised. The new obligations for content moderation (including trusted flaggers and repeated infringers policies) on online platforms vary depending on the size of the platform with the biggest platforms being subjected to additional audits to prevent systemic risks.

The DMA defines a category of online services (the gatekeepers) which are deemed to be dominant on European markets and are therefore subjected to a number of obligations to protect the market from anti competitive behaviours (such as self-preferencing or most-favoured-nation clauses). Both texts introduce important fines for services not respecting their rules; the DMA even going as far as imposing mandatory divesture for gatekeepers that consistently break their obligations.

Article 17 is also being assessed by the CJEU, Poland having requested its deletion for allegedly being contrary to fundamental rights. The Avocat General gave on the 15 July 2021 its opinion, and considers that Article 17 is compatible with fundamental rights, thus advising the Court to rule in favour of Article 17, though with an interpretation close to the Commission's guidance. The CJEU ruling is expected by the end of 2021.

On the 27 July 2021, the Commission opened an infringement procedure against the 23 Member States that did not yet fully transpose the Directive, giving them 2 months to respond to the letter of formal notice and take the necessary implementation measures. Should Member States not provide a satisfactory answer, the Commission may decide to continue the infringement procedure by issuing reasoned opinions.

FEP is engaging with the co-legislators to ensure that these important texts reinforce the tools available for publishers to fight efficiently against online piracy and protect themselves from the abuses and anti-competitive behaviours of giant platforms. FEP also collaborates with other rightsholders and other organisations on common interests. Beyond its consequences on the cultural sectors, the COVID-19 crisis also sparked copyright-relevant debates with some organisations weaponising the crisis to call for a reduction of copyright protection, despite the initiatives publishers (and other rightsholders) took to fulfil their societal responsibility (e.g., in the field of education).
FEP remains vigilant against these unfair challenges and participates in a series of events to demonstrate on one hand, the consequences of COVID-19 for publishers and, on the other hand, the exceptional initiatives they took to help people access books legally.

The new European Commission made the creation of a European framework around Artificial Intelligence (AI) one of its priorities for this mandate. Debates on AI have an impact on copyright, as these technologies are increasingly used in the field of cultural creation. While the new Copyright Directive provides a legal framework for the use of works to feed an AI, reflexions are under way to determine if and how the current copyright framework could apply to AI production. Following the presentation of its Intellectual Property (IP) Action Plan in November 2020, the Commission ordered a study to explore the use of new technologies in rights data management and to explore the forthcoming challenges that AI sets on copyright.