EU adjusts copyright rules to the digital age

The EU is amending its legal framework on copyright to make it fit-for-purpose in today's digital environment. The Council today adopted a directive that modernises existing EU copyright law to pave the way towards a true digital single market. The new rules ensure adequate protection for authors and artists, while opening up new possibilities for accessing and sharing copyright-protected content online throughout the European Union.

The directive addresses a variety of issues, which can be grouped together under three categories:

A) Adaptation of copyright exceptions/limitations to the digital and cross-border environment
The directive introduces mandatory exceptions to copyright for the purposes of text and data mining, online teaching activities and the preservation and online dissemination of cultural heritage.

B) Improvement of licensing practices to ensure wider access to creative content
The directive provides for harmonised rules facilitating the:

• exploitation of works that have stopped being commercialised (out-of-commerce works),
• issuing of collective licences with extended effect and
• rights clearance for films by video-on-demand platforms.

C) Achievement of a well-functioning marketplace for copyright
The directive introduces a new right for press publishers for the online use of their press publications. Authors of works incorporated in the press publication will be entitled to a share of the press publisher's revenue deriving from this new right.