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"gewg_" writes:

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Outdated and fragmented copyright rules "put an unreasonable burden on everyday online activities", the report's accompanying explanatory statement describes: "Those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.