To strengthen the protection afforded under the Copyright Act to audiovisual works, provisions included in the bill of Ministry of Culture, which will be introduced tomorrow, Tuesday, for debate and vote in the Plenary Session of the Parliament.

The proposed provisions provide, for the first time, for the imposition of an administrative fine against those who illegally gain access to audiovisual media, access to which is provided by subscription (pay-TVs and platforms). The imposition of a fine is foreseen both against the individual user and against the person who markets the illegal software-equipment.

In the Committee on Cultural Affairs of the Parliament, the Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni pointed out that the provision covers both the traffickers and the users of pirated television or audiovisual material, i.e. home users, but also professional users who engage in illegal viewing of audiovisual content through pirate services in public places, cafes, hotels, etc.

“The introduction of the regulation is imperative in view of the increase in the phenomenon of illegal access to audiovisual works, which, especially at the level of pay-TVs and platforms, has become gigantic, becoming the object of organized illegal activity. The fine is graduated according to the gravity and the gravity of the infringement, ranging from 700 euros in the case of domestic users, increasing to 1,500 euros in cases of public viewing and use and reaching 5,000 euros in the case of an infringement committed for financial or commercial gain,” the Culture Minister said. Mendoni also said that the bill “extends the possibility of dynamic blocking to all kinds of audiovisual content, namely films and series, which have been, in recent years, an important field of action for pirates.” The aim, he explained, is to immediately cut off access to illegal websites that display such content.

The New Democracy has come out in favour of the bill. The opposition has expressed reservations about their final stance in the plenary session, and only the KKE has said from the start that it will vote against it.

In the second reading of the bill in the Cultural Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives, New Democracy’s rapporteur Michalis Livanos said that “this is a bill that creates a modern charter and code of operation for many bodies of the Ministry of Culture, on a broader plan for the development and extroversion of Greek culture, which has the leadership of the Ministry and personally Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.”

“The bill is in no way a breakthrough in the field of culture, on the contrary, it is a bill that comes to correct or supplement errors and omissions. We have a government that for six years we have not understood what its vision for culture is, even though this is the first time we have more money for culture,” commented PASOK rapporteur Naya Grigorakou.

SYRIZA’s special rapporteur Marina Kontotoli said the bill is characterized by fragmentary regulations that do not make up a unified strategic plan for culture. “The proposed provisions seem to be aimed at political intervention and control of cultural institutions through appointments of persons of the government’s liking,” the SYRIZA MP said.

“You are attempting a serious further step in deepening and promoting business activity in the field of culture as a whole. Whether in museums, such as the National Gallery, or the Metropolitan Museum Organization of Thessaloniki, or in the Thessaloniki Film Festival, the Thessaloniki Concert Hall and so on,” said KKE special rapporteur Ioannis Delis.

“The understaffed Archaeological Service is not organized as a research organization. Its scientific work is not evaluated. It does not provide its staff with opportunities for research and condemns them to processing files related to building permits”, commented the special rapporteur of the Hellenic Solution, Sophia Asimakopoulou, in her intervention and added that “everyday life in the Archaeological Service is bureaucracy, the management of deficiencies and the heroic efforts of some dedicated scientists”.

“If there is a part of the world where systematic archaeological research is carried out, it is Greece and if an agency can and does archaeological research, it is the Archaeological Service. So do not underestimate, therefore, so much the officials of the Ministry of Culture, who are everywhere present and everywhere in scientific conferences, domestic and international,” reacted the Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni and added: “the role of the Archaeological Service is twofold. Obviously, the employees of the Ministry of Culture have to serve the citizen. This is their main job. Beyond that, if you look at their publications, their books, their citation index internationally, there you can very well see if these people are doing scientific archaeological research. Don’t underestimate them. Don’t be so insulting to the officials of the Archaeological Service.”

“The country’s five major museums were essentially privatized with presidents and directors appointed by the Minister herself, and now both the Byzantine Christian Museum of Athens and the National Archaeological Museum are in a bad mess, with closed halls that don’t work, with problems in security and cleanliness. Let’s look at this and see how the Ministry of Culture, with Minister Mendoni, has managed to impose on culture and cultural organizations the logic of the Staff State”, said the special rapporteur of the New Left, Sia Anagnostopoulou.

“The question remains unanswered as to whom the government ultimately intends to punish, what it seeks to prevent in the effort to combat piracy in the audiovisual sector,” said the special rapporteur for Victory Spyros Tsironis, wondering whether the target is the end user of pirated material, whether it is sports, television, or all those who provide access to platforms that operate illegally.

“We too believe that we should not reach the end recipient and should hit the source. Millions of users around the world are using these illegal sources of audiovisual content delivery,” said Spartans’ special advocate Ioannis Kontis.

Culture Minister Lina Mendoni responded to opposition MPs who spoke of a lack of planning in culture. “Our priorities are the development of public realistic policies with tangible and measurable results in the lives of citizens in cultural entrepreneurship, in economic development, the emergence of the cultural and creative sector as an integrated sustainable development tool that cultivates ecosystems of entrepreneurship, contributing decisively to social cohesion. This is also the summary of our policies,” said the Minister of Culture.

Mendoni said that the bill is the product of consultation of the entities for which regulations are introduced to improve their operation and enhance their extroversion. “Extroversion is a goal of the ministry and concerns all institutions,” the culture minister said.

Source: APE/MPE