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Ehler’s and Morgano’s CCI report: digitisation and working conditions

Cultural and creative industries (CCIs), the majority of which are made up of SMEs, operate in a constantly evolving environment, and as such are challenged to rethink and reshape new business models in order to develop market-driven solutions and attract new audiences. There is the need to improve legal certainty and reduce the administrative burden. Member States and the commission are addressed to support the digitisation of cultural content.

Digital platforms are a means of providing wider access to cultural and creative works and offer great opportunities for the CCS to develop new business models. Consideration should be given to how this process can function with more legal certainty and respect for right holders. Protection of right holders within the copyright and intellectual property framework is necessary in order to ensure recognition of values and stimulation of innovation, creativity, investment and production of content.

The atypical employment (part-time and fixed-duration contracts, temporary work and economically dependent self-employment) of cultural and creative workers, specifically in the media and culture sector, is commonplace. There is the need to remove obstacles to mobility of artists and culture professionals. The report supports the European Economic and Social Committee’s request to the Commission to provide an appropriate solution to improve mobility within the EU for CCI workers and ease visa procedures for exchanges with third countries.

The report draws attention to the lack of cross-cutting – and in particular entrepreneurial – skills among graduates in cultural and arts disciplines, as well as to their insufficient knowledge of copyright laws and the means of protecting such rights.

The report (de) also calls for the promotion of ‘intellectual property asset protocols’ facilitating the valuation of intellectual property rights (IPRs), and invites the Commission and the Member States to adopt the necessary mechanisms in order to increase the bankability of IPRs and the recognition of their full value as assets.