Europe’s copyright cop-out; Politico, 9/1/16

Chris Spillane and Axex Spence, Politico; Europe’s copyright cop-out:

"Fifteen years of bitter battles between old media and disruptive digital upstarts over copyright have led the European Commission’s long-awaited reforms of the system down a blind alley.

Instead of a coherent vision that produces winners and losers, the draft proposals on the so-called copyright directive fudge crucial questions about how artists can earn money in the digital age, and whether generations of internet users can avoid committing a crime for unwittingly accessing protected intellectual property...

Streamlining and modernizing a patchwork of copyright laws is a cornerstone of the Commission’s digital single market strategy, which aims to pump €415 billion into Europe’s economy annually by breaking digital barriers across the EU. A final version of the proposal is due to be proposed by the Commission on September 21, and then goes to the European Parliament and EU states for approval, which will likely be highly contentious."

European Union: European Commission On Harmonisation Of EU Copyright Rules; Mondaq.com, 1/11/16

Peter L'Ecluse and Thibaut D'hulst, Mondaq.com; European Union: European Commission On Harmonisation Of EU Copyright Rules:

"As announced in its 2016 Work Programme (See, VBB on Business Law, Volume 2015, No. 10, p. 15, available at www.vbb.com), the European Commission presented on 9 December 2015 its vision on a further harmonisation of EU copyright rules as part of its Digital Single Market Strategy (the "Communication"). To achieve a wide availability of creative contents across the European Union while maintaining a high level of protection for right holders, the European Commission considers it necessary to have a higher level of harmonisation and adapt copyright rules to new technological realities. To achieve this goal, the European Commission focuses on the following courses of action."

EU announces plans to banish geo-blocking, modernize copyright law; Ars Technica, 3/271/5

Glyn Moody, Ars Technica; EU announces plans to banish geo-blocking, modernize copyright law:

"At the heart of the European Union lies the Single Market—the possibility for people to buy and sell goods and services anywhere in the EU. So it is ironic that the European sector least constrained by geography—the digital market—is also the least unified. To remedy that situation, the European Commission has announced its Digital Single Market Strategy, which addresses three main areas.

The first is "Better access for consumers and businesses to digital goods and services" and includes two of the thorniest issues: geo-blocking and copyright. As the EU's strategy notes, "too many Europeans cannot use online services that are available in other EU countries, often without any justification; or they are re-routed to a local store with different prices. Such discrimination cannot exist in a Single Market."

There is strong resistance to removing geo-blocking, particularly from copyright companies that have traditionally sold rights on a national basis and which therefore want geo-blocking to enforce that fragmentation."