‘We want Artists to be Fully and Fairly Paid for their Work’: Discourses on Fairness in the Neoliberal European Copyright Reform

Abstract

Elaborating on the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker’s agenda, EC Vice-President and Commissioner for the Digital Single Market Andrus Ansip wrote on his blog on 18th November 2015, “we want artists to be fully and fairly paid for their work”—the phrase that serves as the title to this article and that has reappeared in different guises throughout the process of EU copyright reform. By examining a case study on the Fair Internet for Performers Campaign—a campaign advanced in the context of the ongoing European copyright reform—I shed light on the powerful discourses on fairness that have dominated and shaped the reform process. Using discourse analysis, I found the concept of fairness to be mostly dependent on the stakeholders’ relative bargaining power and framed by hegemonic neo-liberal thought. Drawing on interviews, fieldwork, media, and the documentation produced by the European Union’s government throughout the process, the case study also illustrates the contested nature of copyright reform today.