Copyright threat to single digital market

Telecoms warn about fragmentation of market.

Telecommunications and internet companies have warned that a fragmented approach to copyright issues will prevent the ‘digital single market’ from becoming a reality. 

The declaration came as hundreds of people involved in the digital sector met in Brussels for a two-day conference organised by the European Commission, in search of both regulatory and non-regulatory solutions to their problems.

Representatives of firms including Deutsche Telekom, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, Sony and Belgacom, together accounting for a turnover of €1.25 trillion and 3 million employees, said that a lack of progress in EU regulation of copyright and the harmonisation of mobile broadband meant that the digital single market was becoming “an impossible dream”.

Swift action

A joint statement by DigitalEurope and the European Telecommuni-cations Network Operators Association (ETNO) called on European decision-makers to take swift action to support the continued take-up of new technology,

“For the ICT industry to be fully effective in its role in achieving the digital agenda objectives, existing internal market fragmentation must be addressed to allow for the creation of a truly single market for digital services,” said Erkki Ormala, president of DigitalEurope and vice-president of Nokia, a Finnish mobile phone manufacturer.

Robert Madelin, the director-general of the Commission’s information society and media department, announced to what was the inaugural Digital Agenda Assembly that the Commission was planning to create a body to tackle the fragmentation problem and talk over intellectual property rights issues.

The group would hold its first meeting in September and would draw together representatives of the internet industry and copyright-holders.

The conference held a series of workshops on issues linked to new technology including digital literacy, child safety, e-government, an EU cloud-computing strategy, management of creative content, and a lack of confidence in the digital single market.

‘Difficult corner’

Neelie Kroes, the European commissioner for the digital agenda, acknowledged that the EU was “in a difficult corner”.

She said: “If we want to continue and build on success, we will need to make changes. That will not be easy. It will take time, and money, and political will.”

She broached the subject of internet security, indicating a liberal approach to policing. She said that she was not in favour of “top-down regulation of what is good or bad on the internet”, because the internet is “a place of freedom”.

“Regulation can sometimes be necessary as an exceptional last resort – but even then, I’m thinking of keyhole surgery, not amputation,” she said.

She added that more needed to be done to encourage take-up of high-speed broadband. She said: “To compete globally, and to ensure that no European is left behind, we must get the basics right, and that means broadband for all.”

Many millions of households in the EU have no access to broadband and authorities and telecoms companies are at odds over who should pay to invest in the new infrastructure.

Without a comprehensive roll-out of high-speed broadband, “we will be left at the starting line while the rest of the world races ahead”, Kroes warned.

The assembly on 16-17 June saw the signing of a pledge by representatives of the Commission and the European Parliament and officials from Hungary and Poland – the two countries which hold the presidency of the Council of Ministers this year – to start talks by the end of 2011 on management of EU radio spectrum.

Telecommunications firms are calling on the EU to allocate the 800 MHz band – the so-called digital dividend made available following the switchover from analogue television – in a harmonised way to increase the take-up of mobile broadband.

Global emissions of carbon dioxide from energy use rose last year at the fastest rate since 1969, according to the 2011 edition of BP’s statistical review of world energy. The rise was driven by an increase in energy consumption, especially in emerging economies.

Global energy consumption rose by 5.6% in 2010, the highest rate since 1973, outstripping economic output, which grew by 4.9%. Energy consumption in developed countries grew by 3.5%, while in developing countries it grew by 7.5%. In China, energy consumption rose by 11.2%, as China overtook the US to become the world’s largest energy consumer.

Christof Rühl, BP’s chief economist, on a visit to Brussels yesterday (22 June), said that energy intensity – the amount of energy used for one unit of economic output – had risen by the fastest rate since 1970. He attributed this to growth in developing countries, whose consumption is more energy-intensive than in rich countries. Developing countries now account for more than half of global energy consumption.

The review said that the data on consumption “implies that global CO2 emissions from fossil-fuel consumption will also have grown strongly last year”.

According to the European Commission, greenhouse-gas emissions in the EU rose by 3% in 2010 compared to the previous year, but remain below the limit set for 2008-12.

Deal blocked

This week, Poland blocked an attempt by the EU’s environment ministers to explore ways to increase the EU’s target for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.

Poland rejected a text saying that the EU would look at increasing the amount by which it should, by 2020, reduce its emissions compared to 1990 levels, from 20% to 25%. The 25% was an attempt to find a compromise between a group of countries, including Germany, Sweden and the UK, which want to increase the target to 30%, and others that want to stick to 20%.

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