International publishers ask European Union for copyright help

Straws in the copyright winds...

A letter written to the European Union by a group of leading European newspaper and magazine publishers on Thursday asked for enhanced copyright protection to help them generate revenue online, according to a story in the New York Times.

The publishers said widespread use of their work by online news aggregators and other Web sites was undermining their efforts to develop an online business models at a time when readers and advertisers are defecting from newspapers and magazines.
“Numerous providers are using the work of authors, publishers and broadcasters without paying for it,” the publishers said in a letter to Viviane Reding, the European media and telecommunications commissioner. “Over the long term, this threatens the production of high-quality content and the existence of independent journalism.”

Axel Springer, which publishes the tabloid Bild, has led a movement in Germany to obtain so-called "neighboring rights" for publishers, which would give them greater control over secondary use by licensing aggregators who generates revenue from their work while still allowing private individuals to access news sites without such a license.

Martin Selmayr, a spokesman for Ms. Reding, said she had not yet reviewed the document and could not comment on it. But he referred to a speech she gave Thursday in Brussels, in which she said that a top priority for developing the digital economy in Europe was the creation of “a simple, consumer-friendly legal framework for accessing digital content in Europe’s single market, while ensuring at the same time fair remuneration of creators.”

The petition has been signed by executives of News Corp., Axel Springer, Gruner + Jahr, Lagardère, Independent News & Media, the Daily Mail & General Trust, Burda Media and the Espresso Group, among others. Neither the International Herald Tribune nor its parent, The New York Times, is among the signatories.

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Meanwhile, the New York Times is again actively exploring charging some sort of monthly fee for access to its main website, according to a story carried by Bloomberg News. The company circulated a survey to subscribers asking them if they'd consider paying a $2.50 monthly fee to access Nytimes.com while others were asked to pay $5.

“The question here for consumers is the psychological barrier of now paying when you were getting it for free before, and you’re going to lose some readers as a result,” said Ken Doctor, an analyst at Outsell Inc. in Burlingame, California. “The New York Times will also have to evaluate what this means for ad rates as they lose readers.”

The story pointed out that News Corp.’s Wall Street Journal charges for access to some of its Web site’s content and publishers including Hearst Corp. and E.W. Scripps Co. have said they are considering pay models. It also noted that the Times once before had a pay model for some of its lead columnists and certain editorial content with its Times Select, which generated $10 million annually and had 20,000 users, but was discontinued in 2007.