The Polish Presidency invited experts in the fields of culture, audiovisual and copyright to Warsaw on 18-20 July. Discussions were held in three concurrent workshops. The copyright workshops covered the following issues: licensing of audiovisual works online, infringement of copyright, and extended collective rights management as a possible solution to current copyright dilemmas.

Peter Weber, the EBU’s chair of the Legal and Public Affairs Assembly, explained the broadcasters’ need for collective management for the mass use of rights in audiovisual productions. Extended collective licensing (ECL) or similar systems offer efficient solutions, including for the unlocking of the broadcasters’ archives. He stressed that rules on good governance and transparency applicable to all collective management organizations should accompany such systems and that the future framework directive for collective management, scheduled for the beginning of 2012, would provide an opportunity for addressing both aspects.

During discussions, reactions to introducing a European provision for ECL were mixed. Maria Martin-Prat, Head of the copyright unit at the European Commission's Internal Market DG, expressed her scepticism, in particular with regard to the cross-border effect of ECL. However, she did not rule out ECL as a solution, provided that its voluntary nature would be respected.

No support was expressed for the idea of a unitary European copyright title, mentioned in the Green Paper on the online distribution of audiovisual works. Interest was shown for the proposal to introduce an unwaivable right for the remuneration of authors, but possible problems with regard to double remuneration were mentioned.