On Oct. 25, 2013, the European Council held a summit to discuss European Union policy developments including the creation of an effective "Digital Single Market" designed to overcome fragmentation of digital services along national lines. It concluded that provision of digital services and content across the single market requires the establishment of an updated copyright regime for the "digital age," targeting a completion date for its review of the current EU copyright framework of spring 2014. However, contrary to general expectations, there is an apparent lack of appetite for legislative reform.
The position of the European Council was confirmed by the Commission on Nov. 13, 2013, in the closing event of the "Licences for Europe" stakeholders' dialogue, an initiative launched by the Commission last year. The initiative gathered creators, Internet service providers, broadcasters and users' organizations of copyright-protected works in order to find practical solutions to content-licensing models to fit online distribution, and to discuss a possible overhaul of the current legislation regulating copyright in the "information society." The year-long discussions have covered four areas: cross-border access and portability of online content services; user-generated content and micro-licensing; online availability of European films; and the licensing required for text- and data mining, which relates to the process of extracting information through automated scanning of text or datasets, used widely for scientific research.
Civil society groups of users have strongly argued for a revision to aging EU copyright law to bring it up to date with evolving digital technology, particularly with a view to finding EU-wide solutions to cross-border licensing of online content. However, divisions among stakeholders on how best to regulate issues such as data mining, and on the overall scope of any new law, have drawn the discussion back to non-legislative solutions based on industry-led commitments relating to new forms of short-term licensing of digital content. This is an outcome that satisfied many right-holders, but left users' organizations frustrated. The Commission's findings, due in spring 2014, likely will restart the discussion and decide whether to cast a legislative proposal.
The conclusions of the European Council are available here, and those of Licences for Europe can be found here.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
