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posted by LaminatorX on Wednesday January 21 2015, @11:22AM   Printer-friendly
from the Copy?-Right! dept.

Julia Reda, rapporteur for the Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee, summarizes the draft report she presented January 19 recommending an overhaul of EU copyright law.

EU copyright rules are maladapted to the increase of cross-border cultural exchange facilitated by the Internet, an upcoming European Parliament own-initiative report evaluating 2001's copyright directive finds. The draft released today(PDF) by Julia Reda, MEP for the German Pirate Party, lays out an ambitious reform agenda for the overhaul of EU copyright announced in the Commission's 2015 work programme.

"The EU copyright directive was written in 2001, in a time before YouTube or Facebook. Although it was meant to adapt copyright to the digital age, in reality it is blocking the exchange of knowledge and culture across borders today", Reda explains. "We need a common European copyright that safeguards fundamental rights and makes it easier to offer innovative online services in the entire European Union."

Outdated and fragmented copyright rules "put an unreasonable burden on everyday online activities", the report's accompanying explanatory statement describes: "Those who are accessing, transforming and creating new works while being located or using resources in different member states can find the system burdensome, while facing legal uncertainty". With rules dating from 2001, "cultural heritage institutions are increasingly struggling to [fulfill] their public interest mission". The report also recommends "improv[ing] the [negotiating] position of authors and performers in relation to other rights holders and intermediaries".

[...]The report calls for the harmonization of copyright terms and exceptions across Europe, new exceptions for emerging use cases like audio-visual quotation, e-lending and text and data mining, as well as the adoption of an open norm to "allow for the adaptation to unanticipated new forms of cultural expression". It recommends "exempting works produced by the public sector...from copyright protection" and demands that "exercise of exceptions or limitations...should not be hindered by technological measures".

[...]The report will now pass through the Legal Affairs committee (with a vote expected on April 16) and finally the plenary of the Parliament. For the Commission, VP Andrus Ansip will present his Digital Single Market strategy in May, and Commissioner Guenther Oettinger's legislative proposal on copyright reform is expected for September this year.

Related Stories

Reda Report Adopted: A Turning Point in the EU Copyright Debate 24 comments

Julia Reda, the only Pirate in the European Parliament, who has been mentioned here in various contexts now blogs with more good news.

[June 16], the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament passed an amended version of my copyright evaluation report with a broad majority. (Find the detailed breakdown of the votes on my overview page. The final adopted text is not yet available--I will link to it as soon as it goes online.)

The amended report was supported by all political groups--the only two opposing votes were cast by MEPs from the far-right French Front National.

In this report, the Parliament recognises that copyright reform is urgently needed not just to improve the Digital Single Market, but also , to facilitate access to knowledge and culture for all people in Europe. It calls on the Commission to consider a wide variety of measures to bring copyright law up to speed with changing realities and improve cross-border access to our cultural diversity, going further than the plans so far announced by the Commissioners.

For the first time, the Parliament asks for minimum standards for the rights of the public, which are enshrined in a list of exceptions to copyright[...]

  • to allow libraries and archives to digitise their collections efficiently,
  • to enable the lending of e-books over the Internet and
  • to allow the [automatic] analysis of large bodies of text and data (text & data mining).

Related: Julia Reda, the Only Pirate in the European Parliament, Weighs in on Copyright


Original Submission

Three EU Governments Want to Give Record Labels Control Over What We Can and Can't Post Online 25 comments

Julia Reda, Member of the European Parliament representing Germany, writes about a proposed EU law which would require sites to monitor and censor posts and any other uploaded material. Leaked material shows that at least three governments are actively working to make this happen.

The governments of France, Spain and Portugal want to double down on a law proposed by the European Commission that would force all kinds of internet platforms to install a "censorship machine" to surveil all uploads and try to prevent copyright infringement. They want to add to the Commission proposal that platforms need to automatically remove media that has once been classified as infringing, regardless of the context in which it is uploaded ("staydown").

By law, every video clip of your cat that you share with an app would need to pass through filters controlled by media companies. Essentially, they would have a veto right to any upload to the internet. These filters would be unable to safeguard your rights to quote, to make parodies, and to use existing works in any other way allowed under copyright exceptions.

The examples most talked about are videos, but even comments and source code would be affected. As currently written, the proposed law would effectively ban a diverse range of sites, including SN or even Githhub. The relevancy for those outside the EU is that if the proposal goes through as is, then calls for "harmonization" would be used to spread the rules to other regions of the world.

Previously:
EU Study Finds Even Publishers Oppose the "Link Tax"
Hidden 2015 European Commission Report on Copyright Infringement
EU Council Presidency Questions Extra Copyright, but Endorses Censorship
Pirate Party MEP Says That Current EU Piracy Filtering Proposals Are Being Sabotaged
Reda Report Adopted: A Turning Point in the EU Copyright Debate
Julia Reda, the Only Pirate in the European Parliament, Weighs in on Copyright


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 2) by AnonTechie on Wednesday January 21 2015, @12:16PM

    by AnonTechie (2275) on Wednesday January 21 2015, @12:16PM (#136677) Journal

    How likely is it that all EU countries will agree to the provisions of EU wide copyright rules ? I think very unlikely !

    --
    Albert Einstein - "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
    • (Score: 2) by davester666 on Wednesday January 21 2015, @07:02PM

      by davester666 (155) on Wednesday January 21 2015, @07:02PM (#136778)

      Not really. I expect them to just merge the most customer-hostile terms from each countries laws together, then add another 100 years after death, in order to make the EU a safe place to do business.

  • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 21 2015, @12:25PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 21 2015, @12:25PM (#136681)
    Is she Red or Redder?
  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Covalent on Wednesday January 21 2015, @01:57PM

    by Covalent (43) on Wednesday January 21 2015, @01:57PM (#136697) Journal

    ...I think this movement has no real chance of enacting legislation of any kind. The reality is that the future she is talking about will make it nearly impossible for content providers to turn massive profits. Small profits, sure. Some people will pay for a deluxe version of an album. Some people will buy an autographed copy of a book or see a movie in iMax Super 4K 3D whatever. But most people, given a choice, will choose a free or nearly free option. If sharing information on YouTube is unencumbered, then I could just watch most of the crappy movies in plain-old 480P 2D YouTube, and that would actually IMPROVE some Hollywood movies. ;)

    This, of course, cannot be tolerated by the big money interests in media these days, and so they will continue to flex their powerful muscles to try and impede this from happening. And so long as consumers continue to fill their pockets with revenues from "Iron Man 8 - Damn he's old" and "Avenger's 6 - Wait, isn't this just Avengers 4 with different actors", they will continue to have the muscle to make their agendas reality.

    But, sadly, that will never happen. Here comes the new boss...same as the old boss...

    --
    You can't rationally argue somebody out of a position they didn't rationally get into.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 21 2015, @02:14PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 21 2015, @02:14PM (#136699)

      They said the same thing about green legislation in Europe during the 70s.

    • (Score: 1) by geb on Wednesday January 21 2015, @02:46PM

      by geb (529) on Wednesday January 21 2015, @02:46PM (#136707)

      You may be underestimating just how much power the word "harmonise" has in EU politics. It's a signal word to remind everybody that variations and exceptions are usually an unfair power grab. It puts the spotlight on anybody who wants to preserve the unfairness.

      However, having said that, this is mostly going to be an attempt to stop local media lobby groups from doing their stupid headbutting contests with google.

  • (Score: 1) by Synonymous Homonym on Wednesday January 21 2015, @04:20PM

    by Synonymous Homonym (4857) on Wednesday January 21 2015, @04:20PM (#136736) Homepage

    Although it was meant to adapt copyright to the digital age, in reality it is blocking the exchange of knowledge and culture across borders today

    In other words, it is working as intended.