EU: Lobbying over copyright control

The Brussels-based Alliance for a Digital Future, a coalition of European software, technology, network and telecoms companies, has accused media conglomerates of wanting to take control of the Internet through new EU rules on copyright. The Alliance has called for incidental copies of protected works not to be covered by the proposed Copyright directive. Meanwhile, an alliance of 24 organizations from across the EU´s creative industries have called on MEPs to provide greater copyright protection to enable the EU to play a leading role in the dissemination of culture in the information society. In an open letter distributed last week, the alliance said that “the issue of copyright would decide whether Europe continues to lag behind the US in the development of the information society, or whether Europe’s creative industries would be given the confidence to invest and grasp the opportunities offered by the on-line market”. MEPs are expected to discuss the draft EU Copyright directive during the November Plenary session in Strasbourg.