Hello everybody,

The Commission (DG MARKT) published their report on the "Public Consultation on the Review of the EU Copyright Rules" yesterday [1][2].

I haven't had time to read through the 100 pages in detail, but since the major struggle is whether the Commission should  legislate on more harmonisation or not and having a universal FoP exception would be an act of harmonisation, I mined the document for just that.

Pro harmonisation:

• Institutional users generally consider that territoriality of copyright creates problems in particular in the area of exceptions, where a higher level of harmonisation is needed.
• Many respondents consider that market-led solutions have not proven to be effective and that harmonisation measures
• [on collective management] Many respondents also point out that there are already national systems of identifiers, and that some degree of harmonisation, standardisation and interoperability could be desirable here. 
• Institutional users generally support copyright harmonisation which implies making exceptions mandatory and harmonising their scope to a greater extent.
• A minority of authors and performers would seek a harmonisation or clarification of  the existing exceptions
• [Intermediaries/service providers] Many respondents from this group argue for more harmonisation and legal certainty in the area of exceptions.
• Representatives of academia, civil society or think-tanks generally consider that the optional nature of the exceptions is problematic and that exceptions should be further harmonised.

Contra harmonisation:

• Film producers generally consider that the current EU copyright rules should not be changed
• [Authors/performers] Most respondents in these stakeholder groups are against any further harmonisation, which they consider would risk a weakening of copyright protection in Europe at the expense of creators.
• Collective Management Organisations consider that the territoriality of exceptions does not constitute a problem for right holders, businesses or consumers
• Educational publishers and representatives of the software industry warn that a further harmonisation [...] could undermine the role of licences
  

Neutral or split on harmonisation:

• Academics (depending on the specific question this groups seems divided)
  
• Member States (some want more harmonisation, others want to keep options)
  

Reminder:

The White Paper (as an answer to which were/are preparing a position paper) was supposed to be published alongside this document, but was postponed due to negative opinions by other units of the Commission (namely DG CONNECT and DG RESEARCH).

The question now is whether we should react to the consultation answers in some way or wait for the actual white paper or do something in-between (e.g. publish a position paper before the white paper is published)? Any thoughts?

Cheers,

Dimi

[1]http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/consultations/2013/copyright-rules/index_en.htm
[2]http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/consultations/2013/copyright-rules/docs/contributions/consultation-report_en.pdf

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