From social distancing to digital un-distancing: The COVID-19 pandemic and new challenges for digital policy in the cultural and audio-visual sectors

Abstract

Lockdowns almost everywhere in the world as a result of the pandemic have led to an unprecedented shift from physical to digital. In the culture sector, this shift has made a large pool of previously inaccessible content available mostly in the form of archival material from cultural events and performances. Although in the past digital did not automatically mean more inclusive, as restrictions to access of cultural content were posed by copyright legislation, institutional policies or the resistance to the digital turn, with this abundant and almost unlimited offer of online content suddenly the discussion of obstacles in access has come to a halt. Our contribution looks into these developments focusing on high-profile cultural (e.g. national theatres, opera houses and concert halls) and audio-visual (AV) institutions with a public interest (e.g. Public Service Broadcasters and AV archives) in the European Union area. We are looking into policy aspects from an institutional perspective and focus on developments particularly vis-à-vis AV media policy and copyright policy. We argue this momentum is a unique opportunity to remember and reconsider policy objectives for an open, democratic and European AV cultural content. We identify this new reality and the implications it brings forward for the existing policies as well as the challenges and opportunities it holds for the AV culture sector, and identify possible policy directions and measures. We urge for the interpretation of broad and flexible exceptions and limitations to copyright for online access to cultural content while transposing the DSM Directive into national laws, and for a focused and coordinated effort related to the regulation of large online video sharing platforms enabled by the new AVMSD, involving such platforms in the financing, distribution and visibility of European AV content.