Final text of the Directive adopted
The trilogue negotiations are concluded after 30 month with a final text of the new EU Copyright Directive, which is not good.
The verdict is the following:
1) Article 13:
– commercial sites and apps where users can upload their content must make best efforts to preemptively buy licences for the uploaded content,
– all but very few sites will have to deploy upload filters to prevent unauthorised copying of a copyright work,
– should a court find non-compliance licensing or filtering obligations, sites will be directly liable for infringements.
2) Article 11:
– reproducing more than “single words or very short extracts” of news stories (snippets, for example) will require a licence,
– this provision is not limited to search engines and news aggregators, but will apply also to services run by individuals, small companies or non-profits.”
3) Other provisions:
– text and data mining: rightholders can opt out of having their works datamined by anyone except research organisations,
– author’s right to proportionate remuneration: total buy-out contracts will continue to be the norm,
– access to cultural heritage: libraries will be able to publish out-of-commerce works online and museums will no longer be able to claim copyright on photographs of centuries-old paintings.
And what is the next step? The Parliament and Council negotiators who agreed on the final text now return to their institutions seeking approval of the result. The Parliament’s process starts with the approval by the Legal Affairs Committee – which is likely to be given on Monday, February 18. Next, the EU member state governments will vote in the Council. Finally, the vote in the plenary of the European Parliament will take place at the end of March or in the beginning of April. There, the proposal of the directive can be approved, changed or, in the best case scenario, rejected.
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.