Exceptions and limitations

Reasons for Vitorino’s recommendations on private copying and reprography levies: establishment of the level of tariffs

Published 8th February 2018

It can take several years to decide whether a given category of devices should be subject to a levy, and if so, what its level should be. Furthermore, the payment may reach rightholders only a long time after a given product is put on the market and the ‘harm’ has occurred.

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Reasons for Vitorino’s recommendations on private copying and reprography levies: double payments in cross-border sales and the liability to pay levies

Published 4th February 2018

Levies should only be collected once in cross-border transactions, namely in the country of destination. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Far too often, there are instances of double payments. Most Member States try to mitigate the problem by providing for systems that allow entities that have already paid the levy for a certain product in e.g. Member State A to be reimbursed upon the exportation of that product into Member State B.

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Vitorino’s recommendations on private copying and reprography levies

Published 31st January 2018

Some stakeholders have put forward ideas to replace the current hardware based levy systems with other forms of fair compensation. But, the alternatives that were put forward have not been sufficiently worked out in detail, and therefore do not justify the “phasing out” of hardware based levies in the immediate future. In particular, the link between the persons causing the harm and benefitting from the exception and the persons financing a system of fair compensation should not be severed.

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How to regulate private copying levy in EU?

Published 25th January 2018

What proposes draft report (de) by Françoise Castex and why

Why

Cultural content plays a pivotal role in the digital economy. Digitisation is having a huge impact on the way in which cultural goods are being produced, distributed, marketed and consumed, and lower distribution costs and the appearance of new distribution channels can facilitate access to creative works and culture and improve the circulation of those works around the world. The implementation of exclusive rights does not guarantee all rightholders, and in particular performance artists, a fair and proportional share of revenue arising from the use of their works. Despite permanent access to online works, downloading, storage and private copying for offline use is continuing, a private copying levy system cannot therefore be replaced by a licencing system.

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Fair use of books in institutes of higher education

Published 25th January 2018

In this case plaintiffs, consisting of individuals and associational organizations, assert claims for copyright infringement for the alleged unauthorized reproduction and distribution of books owned by the Universities. Defendants have entered into agreements with Google, Inc. (“Google”), that allow Google to create digital copies of works in the Universities’ libraries in exchange for which Google provides digital copies to defendants (the “Mass Digitization Project” or “MDP”).

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Reasons for Vitorino’s recommendations on private copying and reprography levies: copies made in the context of licensed services

Published 24th January 2018

Usually, a service provider acquires a licence from the rightholder that covers all copyright relevant acts involved in the provision of the service, including the reproduction of copyright protected content by the end user. Such licensing agreements also reflect the view and the expectations of the end user.

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Online news aggregation and neighbouring rights for news publishers – evidence

Published 22nd January 2018

New draft paper takes an economic perspective on the neighbouring rights debate and tries to find an explanation for this market outcome. First of all, it examines the economic impact of news aggregation platforms on news publishers. The available empirical evidence shows that news aggregators have a positive impact on news publishers’ advertising revenue. That explains why publishers are eager to distribute their content through aggregators.

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Reasons for Vitorino’s recommendations on private copying and reprography levies: the general “leviability” of products and the country of destination principle in cross-border transactions

Published 17th January 2018

Consumers enjoy increasing possibilities to make private copies (for instance of CDs) and to store them on multiple devices. The same applies as regards reprographic copies. The need to compensate for such acts of private copying will not vanish from one day to the next. Therefore, although the importance of levy systems will probably decline over time, they will not be simply abolished in the near future, as some stakeholders would prefer.

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To be or not to be the private copying levy … in EU?

Published 12th January 2018

Different points of view (de) on old issue

Angelika Niebler

Digital private copying has taken on major economic importance as a result of technological progress and the shift to the Internet and Cloud, and the existing system of private copying levies does not take sufficient account of developments in the digital age. There is currently no alternative approach in this area that would ensure appropriate remuneration for the rightholder and at the same time make private copying possible. A discussion therefore needs to be conducted in the long term on a more efficient and up-to-date approach that takes more account of technological progress.

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“Fair use” for backdrop video

Published 22nd December 2017

Derek Seltzer created Scream Icon in 2003, and subsequently reproduced the image on posters and stickers. These reproductions were displayed on buildings, walls, street signs, and other public spaces around Los Angeles, including, specifically, a wall at Sunset Boulevard and Gardner Avenue. The Scream Icon image was also disseminated online.

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Category: Exceptions and limitations