JURI Committee approves the Proposal for the Directive
On 26 February 2019, JURI Committee on Legal Affairs approved the text of the Proposal for the Directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market, despite the protests on the streets.
The Proposal was approved with 16 votes in favour and 9 votes against. It is now on the MEPs to say their final word on the faith of the Directive. This is expected to take place on the plenary session of the European Parliament between 25 and 28 March 2019.
Despite some positive aspects the Directive, its overall assessment remains negative (more about this here). Especially the exception for education, which has been the main focus of IPI as the legal adviser of the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport, lost some of its positive aspects in the trilogue:
– according to the newest proposal, the member states could prevent the teachers to benefit from the exception when licenses are easily available on the market,
– museums and libraries, performing educational activities, will not be able to benefit from the exception,
– each member state will be able to define the extent to which a work can be used.
The listed changes will narrow down the exception for education and will not facilitate the work of teachers in the classroom, even less will it stimulate cross-border educational activities and the harmonization of the exception in EU, which should be the the purpose of the Directive.
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.