15 February 2019

Politico: Winners and losers of Europe’s copyright reform

The European Commission, Parliament and EU countries agreed Wednesday on the controversial copyright reform, after two and a half years of painful negotiations and unprecedented lobbying campaigns from all sides of the argument.[...]

The legislation agreed this week creates a new EU-wide right for press publishers, allowing them to seek compensation from Google for having their content displayed on Google News. It also makes it mandatory for platforms such as Google’s YouTube to strike licensing deals with the cultural industry, film producers, record companies, collecting societies and other rights holders seeking such deals as a condition for their content to be shared on platforms. Platforms will also become legally responsible for copyright-protected, licensed content that has been unlawfully uploaded. [...]

Authors and performers: Songwriters, film and movie directors, actors, musicians, screenwriters — they all won a lot more from the reform than what was originally expected. They managed to add to the text a “principle of appropriate and proportionate remuneration.” This means they’ll be able to seek compensation for the exploitation of their work, proportionate to the revenues generated by their material, rather than based on a flat rate.[...]

Small and medium-sized enterprises: Small and medium-sized enterprises almost derailed the reform, when Germany and France couldn’t agree in the Council of the EU on whether they should be included within the legislation. Germany wanted a broad carve-out for platforms with an annual turnover under €20 million. France preferred only a targeted exception on very specific measures. Paris ultimately had the last word, and the targeted exception only applies to enterprises with an annual turnover under €10 million, a monthly audience under 5 million unique visitors and which are less than three years old.

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