COPYRIGHT : MEPS ASK FOR A REFORM CONDUCIVE TO CREATIVITY.

The European Parliament's Culture Committee adopted, on 22 January, an own-initiative report by Guy Bono (PES, France) on the cultural industries, judging a reform of intellectual property rights to be "crucial" to promote creativity and favour the development of works.

With this contribution to the European Commission's communication on culture in the age of globalisation, this is a new call that the EP is launching in favour of a solution on the management of copyrights online (see Europolitics 3447). According to MEPs, well-organised collective cross-border management and economic models respectful of the rights of all those entitled are "essential". They also ask the Commission to "make all players responsible," including the consumer, in the fight against piracy.

The EP has, in fact, largely denounced the (non-binding) recommendation on online music initiated Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy in...