The EU Copyright Directive, due to be implemented into Member
States by 22nd December 2002, is making slow progress. According to
a report by Legal Media Group, the Directive is now in force in the
Netherlands, but its implementation is still outstanding in many
Member States.
The Copyright Directive is the European Union's attempt to
update copyright protection to keep pace with technology. It
harmonises the principal rights of authors and certain other
rightsholders and provides for certain exceptions to copyright and
the protection of anti-circumvention measures and rights management
information.
Moreover, it is the means by which the European Union and its
Member States implement the two 1996 World Intellectual Property
Organisation (WIPO) "Internet Treaties", the WIPO Copyright Treaty
and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty, which have adapted
copyright protection to digital technology. This, says the
Commission, makes implementation all the more urgent.
The upgrade in national copyright law should have been completed
by 22nd December 2002; but only Greece and Denmark met the
deadline.
Italy and Austria implemented the Directive in April and June
2003 respectively, while the UK came into line in October last year
– after the Commission had initiated infringement proceedings
against those Member States who had yet to implement the
measure.
According to the Legal Media Group, the Netherlands has now made
the necessary changes to its national laws, leaving Finland,
Sweden, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal and the Accession states
still to bring the Directive into force.
