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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Outdated and fragmented copyright rules "put an unreasonable burden on everyday online activities", the report's accompanying explanatory statement describes: "Those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.
(Score: 2) by AnonTechie on Wednesday January 21 2015, @12:16PM
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
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
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Covalent on Wednesday January 21 2015, @01:57PM
...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
They said the same thing about green legislation in Europe during the 70s.
(Score: 1) by geb on Wednesday January 21 2015, @02:46PM
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
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.