Press Release: European Parliament shows little ambition on copyright reform

The European Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee approved on 16 June, with 23 votes in favour and 2 against, a non-legislative “Report on the implementation of Directive 2001/29/EC on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society(2014/2256(INI)), the so-called InfoSoc Directive. This Report covers how the InfoSoc Directive, one of the core elements in EU copyright law, has been implemented across the EU and makes policy recommendations for the expected upcoming reform.

“What Europe needs is a clear, modern copyright framework,” said Joe McNamee, Executive Director of European Digital Rights. “Today’s vote shows that there is considerable resistance to this. Commission Vice-President Ansip’s statement that ‘today’s rules are a mess’ shows that ambition, vision and leadership are needed. So far, we have seen little from the Parliament.”

The Report fails to reform the main problems in EU copyright law that EDRi has highlighted the past. It has failed to call for a harmonised implementation of all exceptions and limitations, and raised the possibility of maintaining and even extending needless barriers that currently face European citizens, in some countries even for such trivial activities as taking holiday photos in front of buildings and posting them on social media.

Please find more information here:
https://edri.org/copyright-reform-docpool/