Hi,
Everyone I know in Brussels including us have asked for a extension. And while the answer was constantly "this cannot be done", which was emphasised even by Commissioner Barnier a few weeks back, the sudden change of tune needs to be analysed as well.
The extension is at the same time very good news and a tiny bit worrisome.
Rumour here has it that the services (i.e. the expert bureaucrats) are in a hurry to complete a proposal, while the cabinet (i.e. the political division) isn't. The thing is that if they don't complete this within their term (keeping EP elections in May and new Commission before the end of the year), no one can knows what the new cabinet will do. They could even decide to not go ahead with a proposal at all and kill the process. All of this is fortune-telling for now, but important to keep in mind. Part of the requests for an extension came from organisations that are outright hostile toward a meaningful copyright reform exactly because they hope to halt the entire thing.
Dimi
Dimi