WHAT THE DSM MEANS FOR STAKEHOLDERS: FIRST REACTIONS
This report summarises the expressed positions of stakeholders on the digital single market
(DSM) reform. It is based on active listening, both face-to-face and online, at round tables
with VP Ansip and Commissioner Oettinger, the #Digital4EU conference, social media
(including Digital4EU and Tweet chats), ongoing discussion on Digital4EU, and previous
stakeholder analysis.
When canvassed prior to the entry of the new Commission, the call for a digital single market
was coming clearly from industry associations, but without detailed analysis of possible ways
forward or sources of political support. The early adopters of the DSM concept would
typically be eCommerce actors, telecom operators and youth organisations. Stakeholders
seem to agree that no "legislative hyperactivity" is needed to usher in a DSM.
The idea that the DSM can only succeed when seen as a project for people and carried out
with the people implies a number of things. First, focussing on trust and credibility throughout
requires substantial political commitment. European citizens may be consumers who do not
want limitations on cross-border access to services such as geo-blocking, but they are also
members of society, for whom an inclusive digital society and a solution to the mismatch
between skills and job opportunities is a high priority.
Copyright attracts a lot of attention, perhaps because it has been intensively discussed at
European level in recent years. To define an adequate vision for the DSM, our stakeholders
hold that it is important to understand that its main building blocks – copyright, telecoms and
the internet – open different perspectives: copyright is based on exclusivity, while telecom
and the internet lives on openness and network effects. Copyright should be an instrument fit
for the fast-moving digital environment; so certain principles could be defined to make the
existing legislation more flexible. The top copyright issues are territoriality, re-use of data
(text & data mining, or TDM) and enforcement, all of them underpinned by clear and
sometimes antagonistic economic interests. On a subscale, testing innovative solutions to
allow consumers to enjoy creative content is proposed, for example micro-licensing.
The choice of tools for building the digital single market matters. Copyright, for example will
be decisive in the shaping the future of media as well as of creative industries & societies at
large.
The biggest source of growth potential in the DSM resides in the digitisation of industry. Our
stakeholders agree that fast adoption of digital technologies by all industrial sectors is a key
objective to safeguard European industrial competitiveness. The take-up of “smart industry”
by traditional companies, and in particular SMEs, is considered especially relevant. Four
issues are identified: access to digital technology for all businesses; the future generation of
business platforms; the impact of new manufacturing technology on the work environment;
and an appropriate legal framework.
Our stakeholders call for measures to kick-start a pan-European start-up model
On data protection and privacy, the general conclusion is that internet users feel protected
well enough and privacy becomes a problem for them if data is used out of context. This goes
hand in hand with statements that online service providers shall not police content online.
DSM ON SOCIAL MEDIA
There were over 9.000 tweets & retweets containing the #Digital4EU hashtag from 16/02 to
13/03. Looking only at tweets & retweets by accounts with more than 3.000 followers, we see
a total of 1143 tweets & retweets. We divided the authors/users into thematic categories and
then analysed the content of their messages. We present the 3 most relevant categories
(Associations & NGOs, Tech business, Journalists, News servers & Bloggers).
The most frequent words & expressions from each category are highlighted in the respective
word clouds1. Each category also includes tweets which initiated high number of interactions
or which were sent by important influencers of that category. The lists of key Twitter users in
each category clearly show that we managed to attract major Social Media influencers to join
the debate.
Here is the general word cloud for all the 1143 analysed tweets:
1
Each word cloud is cleaned of links, Twitter name mentions and general words: EU, Europe, Digital4EU,
DigitalSingleMarket, Digital….
EXAMPLES OF EVIDENCE
MerDiaz
A digital single market needs to allow information and intellectual works to
circulate according to the new reality of the digital world. Some intellectual
property laws in Europe are a plain attack to the opportunities that a digital
community offers and limit people's rights. This may lead people and
businesses to leave a country, so as to access high quality, curated information,
and to develop their ideas. This is an obstacle to Europe's evolution towards a
digital economy, and means people in some countries remain at the back seat
of innovation and progress.
peterk
Sweden has a perpetual copyright protection for certain works that extends
beyond the author death year + 70. This prevents Swedish businesses from reusing out-of-copyright works on equal terms. For re-users, there is no way of
knowing if you will be the subject of legal action until you publish your remix
work. This is not fair and creates uncertainties for Swedish companies that do
not exist in other member states.
Dan
For some reason, some apps are only available in a given country/store. So,
after I moved from one country to another, I realised that I had either to buy all
my old apps again in my new country or live without the new ones I wanted. I
was surprised that such an unbelievable policy was even possible. They have
built commercial barriers within the EU!
eurooptimist Getting rid of bank barriers. When buying online I cannot use the debit card.
Otherwise, sometimes I get high transaction costs on some cards instead of
others.
desmo117
Sites by BBC Worldwide are not available in the UK due to licensing reasons.
It would be great to have a single market where we at least don't block content
produced in the same country.
(Compiled by the European Commission, Digital4EU team, 24 March 2015)