In the second reading of the Digital Copyright Directive by the European Parliament on 12 September 2018, the controversial Articles 11 and 13 were adopted but with amendments.
These articles provide for:
- a specific right of digital reproduction for the press in relation to their publications under Article 11, which includes the right to prevent others from reproducing their material (amendments shown here in italics): "Member States shall provide publishers of press publications with the rights provided for in Article 2 and Article 3(2) of Directive 2001/29/EC so that they may obtain fair and proportionate remuneration for the digital use of their press publications by information society service providers". These rights would not be retrospective and would expire 5 years from publication (calculated from the first day of January of the year following the date of publication). Personal, non-commercial use is not to be caught by this provision and mere hyperlinking is to be allowed). However,"Member States shall ensure that authors receive an appropriate share of the additional revenues press publishers receive for the use of a press publication by information society service providers".
- protection of the interests of rights-holders in protected material which is communicated to the public via online content sharing services under Article 13: The providers of these services store and give access to large amounts of works and other subject-matter uploaded by their users and the amended text requires them to ensure its integrity and security and agree licence terms for such use or to prevent works being made available if requested by the rights-holders. Complaints procedures must also be provided for, including "human review".
However, since the adopted text is not the same at the European Parliament's first reading, the text now needs to go through the informal trialogue negotiations procedure. This involves discussions of the text between the European Parliament, Council and Commission in order to establish an agreed text, which may take some time The negotiation of these provisions will be followed with great interest by the major online platforms, content industry and publishers.
The adopted text can be viewed here.
Author
Disclaimer
The articles published on this website, current at the dates of publication set out above, are for reference purposes only. They do not constitute legal advice and should not be relied upon as such. Specific legal advice about your specific circumstances should always be sought separately before taking any action.