Publishers Make Recommendations As EU Copyright White Paper Nears

With the publication of the European Commission’s white paper on copyright due as soon as the beginning of July,as announced by the Commissioner Michel Barnier, the European Publishers Council (EPC) presented their own “Copyright Vision.”

The Copyright Vision [pdf] would achieve “the full potential of the media and publishing ecosystem to the benefit of creators and every internet user,” according to a press release.

The CEO members of EPC shared these recommendations with EU commissioners in Brussels on 18 June.

The paper focuses on three digital elements: The technical infrastructure, adaptation of legislative framework in line with digital media developments, and practical user-led solutions for rapid market changes and consumer demands.

In particular, the EPC calls on the Commission as well as the World Intellectual Property Organization to support their initiative, the Linked Content Coalition (LCC), launched in March 2012. The LCC aims to complete a global identifier network in which all parties, creations and rights can be identified by using global standards.

The EPC statement states: “whilst the EPC believes strongly that technology is there to help copyright work efficiently on the web, in certain areas, the law may need to be adapted for media and creative businesses to reach their full potential in the digital environment as follows:

– Legal clarification concerning hyperlinks and licensing terms on the ‘open web’;

– Legal protection for machine-readable rights information;

– Hyperlinking to illegal copies to be treated as an infringement;

– A new limited neighbouring right to stop unlicensed use of snippets;

– Fair browsing.”