EU | Dekuzu

Retrospective: opportunities to make available cultural heritage of Europe

Published 16th December 2017

Michel Barnier, European Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services, presided over the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) in which libraries, publishers, authors, and their collecting societies have agreed to a set of Key Principles that are intended to give European libraries and similar cultural institutions the possibility to digitise and make available on line out-of-commerce books and learned journals which are part of their collections. This non-legislative initiative is complementary to the Commission’s adopted legislative proposal on orphan works.

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Guidance on IPRED Directive – calculating damages

Published 14th December 2017

Member States are required to enable the competent judicial authorities to order the infringer who knowingly, or with reasonable grounds to know, engaged in an infringing activity to pay the rightholder damages appropriate to the actual prejudice suffered by him as a result of the infringement. Where the infringer acted not knowingly, or without reasonable grounds to know, Member States have the possibility to enable the judicial authorities to order the recovery of profits or the payment of damages, which may be pre-established.

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SWD Impact assessment on the modernisation of EU copyright rules – impacts of first option

Published 14th December 2017

Option 1 could facilitate the clearance of rights and reduce transaction costs for cross-border online transmissions only on the basis of voluntary agreements concluded between rightholders, CMOs and broadcasters. The effectiveness of such agreements would depend on the sectors’ willingness to license rights collectively (which may be limited in the case of AV works).

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European parliament on a coherent EU policy for cultural and creative industries

Published 8th December 2017

Employment in the cultural sector is unlikely to be offshored, as it is connected to specific cultural, often regional and historical competences. CCIs contribute significantly and more than any other sector to youth employment and have proved to be most resilient during the post-2008 economic crisis. It is increasingly rare for cultural and creative artists to be in permanent employment.

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A balanced IP enforcement system responding to today’s societal challenges

Published 5th December 2017

Efficient, well-designed and balanced intellectual property (IP) systems are a key lever to promote investment in innovation and growth. Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) are one of the principal means through which companies, creators and inventors generate returns on their investment in knowledge and creation.

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Guidance on certain aspects of Directive 2004/48/EC on the enforcement of intellectual property rights

Published 4th December 2017

Intellectual property rights (‘IPR’) protect intangible assets, allowing creators, inventors and artists to profit from their creative and innovative activities. Intangible assets account for more than half the value of companies, and their importance is growing. In a world where EU companies are increasingly competing on innovation, creativity and quality, intellectual property (‘IP’) is a powerful tool for growing the competitiveness of all companies, including small- and medium-sized enterprises (‘SMEs’).

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SWD Impact assessment on the modernisation of EU copyright rules – impacts of baseline option

Published 4th December 2017

Under the baseline scenario, broadcasters would continue facing high transaction costs linked to licensing of rights for cross-border online transmissions, including for their own programmes. Existing voluntary initiatives aimed at promoting the aggregation of rights and the granting of multi-territorial licences could nevertheless contribute to facilitating the clearance of rights for musical works and phonograms used in in radio and TV broadcasts.

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Retrospective: digital rights – background, systems, assessment

Published 20th November 2017

The copyright environment consists of three main aspects: rights (what can be protected by copyright) and exceptions (e.g. copies for private use or for public libraries); enforcement of rights (sanctions for making illegal copies and for trading in circumvention devices); and management of rights (exploiting the rights). In the online world, management of rights may be facilitated by the use of technical systems called digital rights management (DRM) systems. The paper sought to provide policy guidance on the use of technology at an important time.

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SWD Impact assessment on the modernisation of EU copyright rules – options to achieve the objectives (option 3 and discarded options)

Published 17th November 2017

Option 3 – Application of country of origin to the clearing of rights for the services covered by Option 2 and for TV and radio-like linear online transmissions (and services ancillary to such transmissions)

This option would cover, in addition to the services covered under Option 2, TV and radio-like linear online transmissions which are not linked to a broadcast but are online only transmissions (webcasting) and services ancillary to the webcast (such as catch-up and previews of the webcasts). The “country of origin” (CoO) rule would apply to such services.

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Estimating displacement rates of copyrighted content in the EU

Published 16th November 2017

The extent to which digital consumption of pirated materials displaces legitimate purchases is of fundamental importance for EU copyright policy design. The European Commission has commissioned Ecorys to carry out a study on the relation between online copyright infringement (digital piracy) and sales of copyrighted content. Here is the key findings.

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Category: EU