Franco-German compromise deal
Article 3 of the Directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market is back on the negotiating table and it is even worse
Unfortunately, most of the member states of the EU still support the introduction of upload filters on the user-generated content platform, they just do not agree on the scope of the mandatory nature of the filters. France claims that filters sould apply to all platforms, regardless of size. Germany, on the other hand, advocated the position that they should not apply to everyone and that companies with a turnover below €20 million per year should be excluded outright.
In the recently presented Franco-German compromise deal, Article 13 does apply to all for-profit platforms. Upload filters must be installed by everyone except those services which fit all three of the following extremely narrow criteria:
– available to the public for less than 3 years,
– annual turnover below €10 million,
– fewer than 5 million unique monthly visitor.
In addition to these strict conditions the platforms that want to be excluded will have to prove that they have undertaken their best efforts to obtain licenses from the right holders. Such a wide obligation to filter copyright content is totally unacceptable for copyright law as the regime stimulating creativity and the dissemination of knowledge.
The Internet Archive is a non-profit organization that maintains the Open Library, a digital library index, and is dedicated to preserving knowledge. As many of the works in the Internet Archive are under copyright, the Archive uses a system of controlled digital lending based on digital rights management to prevent unauthorized downloading or copying of copyrighted books. In March 2020, due to the circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, the Internet Archive established the National Emergency Library, eliminating the waiting lists used in the Open Library and expanding access to books for all readers. In June 2020, the Emergency National Library faced a lawsuit from four book publishers and was ultimately closed.
The 43rd session of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (hereinafter SCCR) made substantial progress on the issues advocated by the A2K Coalition (Access to Knowledge Coalition), which IPI is a member of. This year’s session was the most productive on the issues of exceptions and limitations. James Love (Knowledge Ecology International), a long-time observer at WIPO, described the outcome and the impact of the public interest community as the strongest since the conclusion of the Marrakech Treaty, which brought global copyright exceptions for the benefit of the blind and visually impaired.
Today, March 17, 2023, a symposium on law in the information society is taking place in the golden lecture hall of the Faculty of Law in Ljubljana. Dr. Maja Bogataj Jančič will present copyright aspects of artificial intelligence at the symposium.
The third day of the 43rd session of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights is intended for discussion on the topic of exceptions and limitations to copyright, especially in connection with the right to research.