Why Article 11 of the Directive is not a good solution
For all of us who were curious about the outcomes of a possible new ancillary copyright for press publishers, we need look no further.
As it happens, Germany adopted a “model scale” of the new right in 2013 aimed specifically against web search engines, granting press publishers with an exclusive right to make the press product or parts thereof available to the public for commercial purposes, unless the use consists of individual words or very short text excerpts. Sounds familiar? The EU is about to introduce the same right in Article 11 of the new DSM Directive. Without some major adjustments to the provision that might not be such a good idea, considering the effect the right has had in Germany – even though the court is leaning to rule in favour of the collecting society VG Media, who is suing Google for remuneration based on the new right, Google will not go down without a fight, threatening press publishers with de-listing them, if they would not grant free usage rights to Google. This behaviour has earned Google a separate lawsuit for abuse of a dominant position, which was rejected by Landgericht Berlin denying any abuse by Google, the case is currently pending before the Court of Appeal in Berlin.
The entire conundrum just goes to show, that imposing a link-tax on news aggregators, might result in big news market players getting away without repercussions, and smaller press content providers getting stuck with the bill. Even scientific studies show, why the new ancillary right might not be a good solution.
Also, info for any member state wishing to adopt similar provisions on a national level: AG Hogan recently delivered an opinion that such provisions must be notified to the Commission beforehand.
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.