James Delahunty
4 Jan 2008 17:31
This year, the European Commission will make proposals for the creation of a single European market for online multimedia services that sell music, video and games content. As part of the objective, the Commission must make proposals on how to tackle illegal downloads, which have prevented many content providers from offering multimedia for online consumption.
"Europe's content sector is suffering under its regulatory fragmentation, under its lack of clear, consumer-friendly rules for accessing copyright-protected online content and serious disagreements between stakeholders about fundamental issues such as levies and private copying," EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding said.
A spokesman said that legislation is not the aim of the move. "At the moment we are at the beginning of the process," he said. While EICTA welcomed the move, it questioned whether the Executive's decision to make a non-binding recommendation on the steps to be taken was the right approach as opposed to just going straight for legislation.
"It means you are not going to see any really meaningful changes for consumers for at least a couple of years," EICTA Director General Mark MacGann told Reuters. "It may be too little, too late." The European Commission expects the market for Internet downloads to grow from from €1.8 billion in 2005 to €8.3 billion in 2010.
Source:
Yahoo (Reuters)