The first quarter of 2022 in EU copyright
The implementation of Directive 2019/790 of the European Parliament and of the Council on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market and amending Directives 96/9/EC and 2001/29/EC (the so called DSM Directive) is still underway across Europe. Only eleven member states have so far implemented the directive. Implementing legislation is in its final stages in the parliament in Luxembourg and Spain, whilst sixteen member states – Slovenia included – have not reached that stage yet. A public discussion of implementing draft laws was held in Slovenia on 5. january 2022, with not much activity seen since. The CJEU key decision regarding article 17 of the DSM Directive in case C-401/19, Poland v Parliament and Council, is also fast approaching (26. April 2022). After the final decision on Poland’s action for annulment is issued, Poland is expected to begin the implementation process as well.
AG Pitruzzella issued his opinion in case C-716/20, RTL Television (link in French). He held that the notion of ‘cable retransmission’ refers to the retransmission of a primary transmission by cable distributors, who carry out such retransmission as professional operators in the context of a conventional cable network.
The CJEU has accepted a preliminary assessment (5. January 2022) on whether Directive 2014/26/EU must be interpreted as precluding national legislation that reserves access to the copyright intermediation market, or in any event the granting of licences to users, solely to entities which can be classified, according to the definition in that directive, as collective management organisations, to the exclusion of those which can be classified as independent management entities incorporated in that Member State or in other Member States. The case will be discussed under the number C-10/2022 LEA.
In other news, related to copyright law:
The European Commission issued its proposal of the ‘Data Act’ (23. February 2022). The proposed regulation would harmonise rules on who can use and access data generated in the EU across all economic sectors.
European Parliament and the Council reached a provisional agreement (24. March 2022) regarding a highly awaited regulation, the so called “Digital Markets Act” – DMA.
The French government has a new plan for Europe that could help the EU compete with the US tech giants: the digital commons.
The International Association of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), PAC Centre for digital preservation, hosted at the National Library of Poland is holding a series of 10 webinars on basic understanding of digitisation projects.
Communia, a non-governmental organisation that advocates for policies that expand the public domain and increase access to and reuse of culture and knowledge, issued twenty new copyright policy recommendations for the next decade.
The DSM Directive entered into force in June 2019 and the deadline for implementation expired on 7 June 2021. On 23 June 2021, the Commission launched multiple infringement procedures and sent letters of formal notice to Slovenia and 22 other Member States that had failed to notify it of the full transposition of the Directive. Slovenia remains among the 14 Member States against which the Commission is continuing the infringement procedure. On 19 May 2022, the Commission sent reasoned opinions to Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Greece, France, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland and Sweden.