COPYRIGHT : AUTHORS WELCOME THE NEW APPROACH TO PRIVATE COPYING.

It is with "relief" that the European artistic community welcomed the sine die postponement of the adoption of the recommendation on the royalties for recording equipment used to make private copies.

"We salute the Commission's determination to address intellectual property and cultural issues with all appropriate consideration and proper debates", stated the "Culture First" coalition consisting of organisations of different categories of rights holders including authors, performers, actors, journalists, music publishers and record and audiovisual producers. It also stressded the close link between this decision taken by the president of the Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso and the prompt EU ratification of the UNESCO Convention on cultural diversity.

Authors also recognize the "independence of action" of the Commission's decision towards industries that "praised the pure and simple substitution of current systems by lockers - the so...