The reform of copyright law in Europe can again hope to be adopted by the trilogue (Council, Parliament, Commission and be passed solemnly by the meps before the end of the current legislature. This directive provides for the establishment of a right neighbor to pay for content publishers operated by the platforms (article 11 of the directive, copyright law) and the obligation of these same platforms to filter content that may infringe the rights of copyright (article 13).
After weeks of negotiations, Paris and Berlin, which did not agree on the scope of article 13, have reached a compromise. All the companies will not be covered by the obligation of filtering. It would exempt those that meet three criteria: have fewer than three years of existence, realize a turnover of less than € 10 million and have a hearing level of less than 5 million unique visitors (uv) per month. This would protect the micro-enterprises and start-ups. All the other companies, such as YouTube in particular, will need to remove the contents which have not been the subject of a license agreement between the artist and the platform.
in Addition to this article 13 on monitoring of the respect of rights, the directive provides for the creation of a “neighbouring right” of the copyright law for press publishers. Its principle is that the newspapers, magazines or press agencies are paid during the online exploitation of their production by aggregators of information.
Next appointment on the 8 February
the Main subject, the giants of the digital denounce this text is, in their eyes, a violation of the freedom on the Internet. Last December, Richard Gringas, Google vice president, in charge of relations with the media industry, had warned about the “unintended consequences” that could have this provision on small publishers. Specifically exclude the “small” actors responded directly to this criticism.
After this agreement, the representatives of the 28 member States of the EU must now meet on 8 February to agree on the other points of the reform, even if articles 11 and 13 were among the most discussed. It would then be up to the representatives of the three european institutions (Council, european Parliament and the Commission) to reach a common text.
The text should finally be adopted solemnly by the Parliament to be permanently applicable. Which suppose to be presented in plenary assembly (two sessions in march and one in April) before the end of the legislature next may.
