Ministers of Agriculture and Fisheries adopted the Copyright Directive
Today, the Council of EU sealed the deal on the Directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market. After the publication of the official text of the Directive and its entry into force, the Member States will have two years to transfer the directive into their national legislation.
Compared to February’s vote on the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER), on which the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Poland, Italy and Finland voted against, while Slovenia and Belgium abstained from voting, today also Sweden was against and Estonia erred on the side of the abstained. Nevertheless, a qualified majority of 16 Members States representing 65% of the population of the EU, was enough to adopt the Directive. Today, 19 Member States, representing 71,26% of the population, were in favour of the Directive in the Council composed of the Ministers of Agriculture and Fisheries. It is now on the Member States to implement the bad Directive into national legislation. Will they do that more or less automatically, in accordance with the “copy/translate/paste” method, or will they find better solutions where possible?
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.