The European Union and its member states have finally ratified
two agreements created by the World Intellectual Property
Organisation (WIPO), the Copyright Treaty and the Performances and
Phonograms Treaty.
Negotiations on the treaties began in 1996 and the European
Commission said that the Copyright Directive of 2001, which forms
the basis of copyright law in all the EU's 27 member states, was
based on the treaties.
"Immediately after the [WIPO] Diplomatic Conference in 1996,
work started at the European level to adapt European copyright law
to the WIPO 'internet' Treaties," said a Commission statement. "A
European Copyright Directive was adopted in 2001."
Countries that have agreed to sign up to WIPO treaties formally
do so by ratifying them. Though the decision to ratify was taken by
the European Council in 2000, it has only just taken place.
"Today is an important day for the European Union and its Member
States and WIPO," said Internal Markets Commissioner Charlie
McCreevy. "We as a group have shown our attachment to the
international system of protection of copyright and related rights.
These two treaties brought protection up to speed with modern
technologies."
The treaties were the first time that the EU itself was allowed
to be a full 'contracting party' at WIPO on a copyright issue,
rather than just an observer.
The ratification comes as EU countries meet with the Commission
as part of a newly created body designed to co-ordinate copyright
protection and anti-piracy activity across the EU.
The European Observatory for Counterfeiting and Piracy was
founded earlier this year by McCreevy.
"The Observatory will work on existing legal frameworks and
establish a databank on the specific areas of threat facing the
EU," said a Commission statement.
"We must do more to protect ourselves and the Observatory is a
fundamental step in bringing together Member States, authorities,
private businesses and consumers in a joint, concerted effort to
rid ourselves of this dangerous problem," said McCreevy.
The Observatory first met in September and established two
sub-groups to work on assessing the existing legal framework and to
look at data gathering, the Observatory said.
The Commission said that the Observatory was a necessary attempt
to find ways to enforce intellectual property laws outside, as well
as inside, the courts system.
"The Commission aims to ensure that a truly efficient and
proportionate system of enforcement of intellectual property rights
exists, both within and outside the internal market," said the
Commission statement. "The current legal framework offers the tools
to enforce intellectual property rights in a fair, effective and
proportionate way, but there is an acute need to support
enforcement efforts through practical non legislative means."
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