In the voting campaign for the new film law, opponents and spokespersons are referring to other European countries where Netflix is not being asked or asked to pay to support local filmmaking.
The federal vote booklet is now creating more ambiguity. A blue map of all European countries with “investment or tax liability for streaming services” is printed on page 13.
What is confusing in the illustration is that Apple and Pierce have teamed up.
The source is the “Mapping of National Laws for the Promotion of European Works” published in 2019 by the European Audiovisual Observatory (EAO), the expert body of the Council of Europe. There are two different maps: one with investment liability countries (on page 60) and one with tax liability countries (p. 69).
Authorities have combined the two items for the controversial card in the ballot booklet. As the Federal Chancellor explained Wednesday, this is for “easy to read explanations.”
But there is a second reason why the filming raises eyebrows. Countries with investment liabilities include ten countries that only know the rules for streaming providers known as “generally formed liabilities” and should promote the production and access of European films “if possible”, for example Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands or Norway, Sweden and Finland.
This means that if countries with a particular investment or tax liability are given the color blue, the map of Europe will appear much whiter than it already appears on printed voting booklets.
The federal chancellor sees this only as an inaccuracy and tried to “clarify” it with aggressive communication on Wednesday.
Despite the streaming fee, the authority only acknowledges that Slovakia’s whitewashing of the pamphlet was a “mistake”.
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