The collecting societies ProLitteris, SSA, SUISA, SUISSIMAGE and SWISSPERFORM jointly comment on the consultation draft of 24 May 2023 (Federal Act on Copyright and Related Rights – Ancillary Right for Journalistic Publications). The Swiss collecting societies, which act jointly as "Swisscopyright", have assessed the proposal legally and in terms of feasibility.
They welcome the planned amendment to the Copyright Act. The Federal Council has drafted a suitable law. In particular, the collecting societies welcome the following four elements of the concept, which differ from the similarly structured EU ancillary copyright law:
- Firstly, the Swiss proposal uses the tried and tested system of mandatory collective management: tariff procedures and distribution systems of the collecting societies. There is no prohibition of use.
- Secondly, the proposal concerns the targeted service, journalistic publications, as a whole. The use, on the other hand, can also include only snippets and thumbnails. However, hyperlinks, i.e. references to other addresses, are not subject to remuneration.
- Thirdly, the criteria for the amount of remuneration deviate from the principle of "earnings of the user", which previously applied to all statutory remuneration, and in addition, the criteria for collection deviate from the criteria for distribution.
- Fourthly, the media companies are entitled to remuneration, but the journalists are involved, for example in a ratio of 50:50 as in the "Distribution Online" of ProLitteris within the framework of the tried and tested copying remuneration.
The detailed statement can be found here (in German): Statement of the collecting societies
