On Tuesday, 11 June 2024, a picket of the film community took place in front of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland under the slogan ‘Enough of waiting for internet royalties!’. The event accompanied the first reading of the draft amendment to the Copyright Act, which is intended to introduce long-awaited internet royalties for Polish filmmakers.
A press briefing was also held during the picket on the square at the corner of Wiejska and Jana Matejki streets in Warsaw. It was attended by representatives of organisations such as Youth Circle of SFP, Audiovisual Authors and Producers Association, Polish Screenwriters Guild, Polish Directors Guild, Polish Society of Cinematographers, Polish Actors' Trade Union or ZASP.
The actors and audiovisual creators themselves were also present and were happy to talk to journalists about their demands and expectations of the government. They included. Agnieszka Smoczyńska, Magdalena Boczarska, Eryk Kulm Jr., Maria Dębska, Karolina Bielawska, Elżbieta Benkowska, Zofia Goraj, Katarzyna Warzecha, Małgorzata Szumowska, Jan P. Matuszyński, Paweł Maślona, Michał Sikorski, Martyna Byczkowska, Juliusz Machulski, Ilona Ostrowska, Szymon Majewski, Rafał Zawierucha, Michał Czarnecki, Barbara Kurdej-Szatan, Olga Bołądź, Maja Ostaszewska, Daria Widawska, Maciej Zakościelny and many other film industry professionals..
We have come here united as a film community and we speak with one voice. We demand that Article 70 be extended by point 5, which reads as follows: ‘appropriate remuneration for making a work publicly available in such a way that anyone can have access to it at a place and time of their choosing’, or in other words ‘internet royalties’, said director Agnieszka Smoczyńska, representing the Polish Directors Guild, during a meeting of the Culture and Media Committee.
This is a point we have been fighting for for years. (...) I think the justification for our demand is obvious. Royalties from the internet guarantee us not only the remuneration we are due for work already done, but also artistic freedom. In this way, we are not just content providers, but creators and co-creators of Polish culture and national identity - the director emphasised.
The draft amendment to the Copyright Act currently being processed in the Sejm is a piece of legislation long awaited by the entire film industry, implementing an EU directive that ensures filmmakers, among other things, due royalties for the use of their works on streaming services. Poland is the last country in the entire European Union that has not yet implemented the provisions of the directive into its law, for which we face high financial penalties already calculated in millions of euros.
I wanted to emphasise the significance of this act, which is of groundbreaking importance for the film industry. There has not been such an important law since the Cinematography Act. It fulfils the demand that we have been making for many years to simply adapt the law to the changing reality. Only to extend the law that is already in force in Poland. After all, since 1994, cinemas, TV stations and cable operators have been paying royalties, but not online businesses, said SFP-ZAPA director Dominik Skoczek in his speech.
The meeting of the Culture Commission also heard the views of young filmmakers, who were represented on that day by the chair of the Youth Circle of the Polish Filmmakers Association, director Elżbieta Benkowska:
‘The voice of young people is very important and it is also very important that it be heard,’ she said. ’I am a representative of the Youth Circle, but also of students and people for whom the Internet will be their only field of work. There are already newcomers whose films are only available online. If this regulation is not updated, it will effectively deny them the right to royalties.
In her speech, the author also emphasised how important the support of collective management organisations is for creators:
As young filmmakers, we cannot afford lawyers, and we are not able to negotiate contracts with such large entities as streaming platforms or television stations. Only collective management organisations can ensure that the money due reaches our accounts. We are also united here to say that we all need a provision on internet royalties through the OZZ. No amendments,’ she said.
We kindly ask you to implement this regulation as soon as possible, so that we can stop fighting for our dignity and make films in peace and quiet,’ the director concluded her speech.