The coalition condemned the failure of the draft Copyright
Directive to harmonise the European market. They expressed their
disappointment following recent political agreement on the
Directive struck by EU ambassadors in Brussels.
The Coalition say they want a Directive that gives strong
protection to creative work in the digital environment and argue
that the current text fails to provide an adequate legal
framework.
The draft Directive contains over 20 exceptions to copyright
law, which the Coalition regards as excessive. It also attacks
parts of the text which it says provides no payment to the holders
of copyright in some cases which is damaging to their
interests.
Under the current text, each Member State can apply not only its
own list of exceptions, but extend this to many other exceptions
included in the new Copyright Directive. This, says the Coalition
in a statement, would weaken the level of protection that already
exists in a majority of EU countries.
The Coalition said in its statement:
“It is essential that the creative community
have the ability to use technical measures, such as encryption, to
protect work distributed to consumers via the Internet. But the
draft Directive allows EU Member States to intervene arbitrarily
and ask rightholders to modify their technical measures to allow
for widely varying amounts of private copying in different
countries.
"This could result in the partitioning of
the Internal Market by mandating different technologies in each of
the 15 Member States, according to the national view of how much
private copying should be allowed.”
The Coalition is are now calling on MEPs to make the necessary
changes to the Directive during its second reading at the European
Parliament later this year. It said: “If changes are not made, this
legislation could hold back the creative community in their efforts
to develop new ways for consumers to enjoy European culture via the
Internet.”
