EU: Copyright Directive Under Fire

The publishing, phonographic and telecoms industries have signalled their strong opposition to the draft Directive on Copyright, now adopted by the European Commission. They argue that its provisions will provide insufficient protection for rights holders against the making of unauthorised copies and that the liability for infringements should not be placed exclusively on the shoulders of telecom operators. While the European Commissioner, Sr Monti, has rejected a call to deal directly with the issue of liability, the draft as it now stands exempts technical acts of reproduction that are “dictated by technology but which have no separate economic significance” – copies, in other words, made automatically when content is transmitted over the Internet.