Hi all,
Skimmed through the document. The basic position is that
they recommend action to be taken in the 2014-2019 period,
but don't want to say whether this should legislative or
other. The positions range from harmonising exceptions
(teaching, persons with disability) to basically
refraining from any binding steps (in the cases of
user-generated content, e-lending).
Perhaps one good development is that the Commission
sees copyright as "part of a broader set of 'rules of the
game'" for the internet, which means that they've gotten
the notion of net politics comprising many
different policy sectors.
As Luis pointed out, some nuances might be quite important
in setting the tone for the next years. And since this is
just a draft and these little bits can change in the final
version, I would refrain from making definitive public
statements for now.
One thing I'd like to point out already, though. The
Commission mentions three objectives of a possible copyright
reform and two of them contain the word "market". As long as
copyright remians an economic tool within DG MARKT, we will
need to talk about economic benefits of free knowledge in
order to be taken seriously. Talking only about cultural,
democratic and educational benefits will relegate us to the
role of a second-class stakeholder.