The Directive was adopted
Despite 5 million signatures collected against the introduction of censorship and mass protests that took place in Europe last week, the MEPs have adopted the harmful Directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market on today’s plenary vote in the European Parliament.
The Directive was adopted with 348 votes in favour and 274 votes against (see how individual MEPs voted here). Before that, MEPs voted on the possibility of amending the Directive and making it better, which they rejected with only 5 votes of difference: 317 votes against and 312 votes in favour. Consequently the deletion of Articles 13 (now 17) and 11 (now 15) of the Directive was not discussed in the plenary vote. The European Parliament adopted the Directive with all its provisions, including Article 11 (now 15) that introduces a new related right for press publishers and Article 13 (now 17) that will cause filtering of the user-generated content. The Directive is a lost opportunity for a good copyright reform. It will not harmonize the digital European market, with unclear provisions it does not bring legal certainty and it does not balance the interests of the rightsholders on one and of the users of copyrighted works on the other side. We really hope that all the creators (and not only the chosen ones) will get fair remuneration since the price measured in limitation of the flow of information, removal of perfectly legal content and infringement of freedoms on the internet will be high.
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.