On World Copyright Day, an awareness campaign was held on Thursday morning at Brussels Central Station to highlight revenue losses caused by the unauthorised use of texts and images.
Reprobel, the copyright management company behind the initiative, installed an orange parrot to symbolise copy-pasting. The bird was placed in a display case where fake banknotes flew out when passersby pressed a button. On the phone booth, the message "The cost of unpaid creativity" invited passengers to reflect on the impact of copyright infringement.
"Copyright is merely a means to an end: ensuring that authors, publishers, and the Belgian creative sector receive fair compensation for the use of their works," explained Kurt Van Damme, Head of Licensing, Legal Affairs, and International Relations at Reprobel.
Reprobel reminds everyone that the internet is full of protected content and that any reproduction or distribution of texts and images for professional purposes legally requires a license, whether in digital or printed formats.
According to the organisation, over half of Belgian businesses lack this licence, resulting in an estimated €3 million loss in copyright-related income for Belgian creators.
"We wanted to highlight that there are still tens of thousands of businesses that fail to declare what we call copy-pasting," said Jean-Paul Langhoor-Beitia, CEO of Reprobel. "By not declaring, they fail to contribute to our mission: supporting Belgium’s creative and cultural sectors."
Reprobel also emphasised the importance of respecting digital copyright as much as physical copyright. Many internet users mistakenly believe online content can be freely copied or shared without restrictions, which is not the case.
The organisation projects that by 2026, digital usage of texts and images will account for 90% of copyright-related activity in the private sector.
