©-LAW

Beach + sunbathing + copyright = the perfect summer As readers with an interest in EU copyright are well aware, EU Member States had time until 7 June to  transpose the   DSM Directive 2019/790   [Katposts  here ]   into their own national laws. With a few exceptions  [see Communia tracker  here ] , because of a number of reasons - ranging from COVID to the delayed  Article 17 Commission's guidance   [Katpost  here ]  to some important pending rulings of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), the majority of EU Member States missed this deadline. This said, based on what is already available, it is apparent that the provisions that the EU legislature adopted in 2019 to establish a ‘Digital Single Market’ will be implemented in different – if not altogether creative – ways across the EU. It is true that there are provisions in the Directive that leave Member States significant discretion. Such discretion ranges from the v...

The IPKat's favourite type of link The IPKat is back with the 6th instalment of the DSM Directive ( Directive 2019/790 ) series  [previous episodes  here ,  here ,  here ,  here , and  here ] . Today's topic is once again Article 15 and the new press publishers' right.  Among other things, the protection granted under Article 15(1), that is the right of EU-based press publishers to control the reproduction and making available for online use of their press publications by information society service provider s, " shall not apply to acts of hyperlinking " (Article 15(1), subparagraph 3). Recital 57 substantially states the same thing, by providing that " [t]he rights granted to publishers of press publications should not extend to acts of hyperlinking ." Hyperlinks and the press publishers' right: from the original proposal to the final version The final version of the directive is not dissimilar from  the o...

Following the conclusion of the 6-month Estonian presidency, the presidency of the Council of the European Union is now  Bulgarian , and will be so for the first semester of 2018. The  Council  is one of the key EU institutions and brings the voice of Member States' governments into the decision- and law-making process. In fact and among other things - together with the European Parliament - the Council is in charge of adopting EU legislation. Of course, one of the pending pieces of legislation that might receive a decisive boost towards its formal adoption over the next few months is the Directive - proposed by the EU Commission in September 2016 - on copyright in the Digital Single Market  [ here ; Katposts  here ] . Since its release, the draft directive has attracted extensive commentary. In particular, the draft provisions contained in Article 11 ('Protection of press publications concerning digital uses', this being a proposal to intro...

Readers will  remember  that back in 2013 Germany adopted a new neighbouring right over news content and in favour of press publishers ( Leistungsschutzrecht für Presseverlege,  LSR ). The newly created  sections  87f, 87g and 87h of the German Copyright Act provide for the exclusive right of press publishers to exploit their contents commercially for one year, thus preventing search engines and news aggregators from  displaying excerpts from newspaper articles without paying a fee. The rationale The rationale underlying this legislative initiative was that of addressing  declining revenues in the press publishing sector.  Although this is not a new phenomenon (in some European countries newspaper circulation has been in decline since the 1950s, in parallel with the advent of television), since 2000 newspaper advertising sales in Europe have  fallen across the board . This data is in line with what has also occur...

Again on the proposal (for a directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market) As reported and covered in a number of previous posts   [ here ,   here ,   here ] , in the  context  of its  Digital Single Market Strategy  (DSMS) on 14 September last the EU Commission unveiled a new  copyright package , consisting of a number of proposals aimed at improving the existing EU copyright framework. Among the contents of the package, there is the already famous  proposal for a directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market  (DSM Directive)   [ here ] .  Among other things, the DSM Directive intends to introduce into the EU copyright framework a new related right in press publications. Article 11 of the directive states: "1. Member States shall provide publishers of press publications   [what is to be intended by 'press publications' is clarified at Recital 33 of the directive] ...

The proposal (for a directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market) As  reported  by this blog, on 14 September last the EU Commission unveiled its  second  copyright package , ie a new set of proposals  [the first being the  proposed regulation on cross-border content portability  in December 2015]  aimed at improving the existing EU copyright framework as part of its  Digital Single Market Strategy  (DSMS). Among the contents of the package, so far what has attracted the greatest degree of attention is the Commission's  proposal for a directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market  (DSM Directive).  Much has been said on the ambitiousness (or lack thereof) and merits (or demerits, depending on one's own perspective) of relevant provisions, notably those regarding new mandatory exceptions  [Articles 3 to 6] , a new related right in press publications  [Article 11] , and the so called...