Appendix 6 - International Music Council

esources restricts usability and exploitation. Therefore, eContentPlus tackles key issues in
the digitalization of European heritage with its budget of € 149 million
(http://europa.eu.int/information_society/activities/econtentplus/index_en.htm).
EXAMPLE 4: IST
In the 6 th framework of the Information Society Technologies (IST) program IST
contributes to the realization of European policies for the knowledge society as agreed at
the Lisbon Council of 2000, the Stockholm Council of 2001, the Seville Council of 2002,
and as reflected in the e-Europe Action Plan and in the i2010 initiative. Objectives are
among others:
• an accelerated transition to a competitive and dynamic knowledge economy capable of
sustainable growth, with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion.
• broader availability and an extension of IST applications and services in all economic
and public sectors and in society as a whole.
• ensuring European leadership in generic and applied technologies at the heart of the
knowledge economy.
• increasing innovation and competitiveness in European businesses and industry and to
contribute to greater benefits for all European citizens.
The focus of IST is currently on the future generation of technologies in which computers
and networks will be integrated into the everyday environment, rendering accessible a
multitude of services and applications through easy-to-use human interfaces. This vision of
'ambient intelligence' places the user, the individual, at the centre of future developments
for an inclusive knowledge-based society for all (http://www.cordis.lu/ist/).
CONCLUSION: NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND MUSICAL DIVERSITY
The internet and new digital technologies are new and highly successful. They change and
replace old channels of communication and trade. Possibly conventional analog
broadcasting services will be affected or even abolished by this technology generation in
the near future. The sudden success of services such as Voice-Over-IP shows how fast
conventional media can be replaced by the new technologies. If one takes such drastic
changes into account it is paramount that the same regulations and standards are applied to
the new media as to the old ones. Else one has to suspect the effective ablishment of the old
structures by the replacement of new technologies (comp. discussion about GATS and the
audivisual sector in section 7).
Insisting on the principle of technological neutrality laid down, for example in the GATS,
the European Community defends the concept that all products delivered electronically
should be classified as services. With this argument the Community accounts for the
definition and implemention of cultural and audio-visual policies for the purpose of
preserving cultural diversity. This is an argument in favour of the existing system of public
broadcasting services aiming for the preservation of this system in the digital age.
The first observation in this context is that most of experts interviewed for this report did
not know about developments in the domain of the new media.
Without the support of the European Union in the domain of the new technologies with
programs such as Information Society Technologies (http://www.cordis.lu/ist/)
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