Opposition against Article 13 of the Directive
The opposition against Article 13 of the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market is getting stronger and stronger.
The provision obliges platforms, on which users upload contents (such as Facebook and YouTube), to automatically filter and block all the contents, for which licenses have not been concluded. Experts and academics are against the introduction of such filters and censorship, and the civil initiative is drawing attention to the negative impacts of the provision on users. Now that Article 13 is being negotiated in the trilogue, it turned out that even big organizations of right holders, especially in the audio-visual and sports sector as well as organizations representing European authors, publishers, film and music producers and broadcasters, are against the provision as it is. In their opinion, the provision bears too much of a burden regarding the notification of the infringement on the right holders.
Here is a list of just a few stakeholders that have already expressed their opposition against Article 13:
– experts;
– academics;
– more than 4 million signatories of the petition against the introduction of filters;
– Civil Libraries Union for Europe and other organizations defending the rights of Internet users;
– representatives of the audio-visual and sports sectors across Europe;
– organizations representing European authors, publishers, film and music producers and broadcasters.
On the other hand, YouTube is tries to impose Content ID, its filtering technology, as the standard for efficient copyright protection that should be used also by other competitive platforms. Were those, who were warning against the possible strengthening of Google’s position, right?
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.