Copyright Directive

The Copyright Directive (also known as the Information Society Directive) is a directive of the European Union enacted to implement the WIPO Copyright Treaty and to harmonise aspects of copyright law across Europe, such as copyright exceptions. The directive was first enacted in 2001 under the internal market provisions of the Treaty of Rome and updated on 26 March 2019. The first directive was subject to unprecedented lobbying and was considered a success for Europe's copyright laws. The 2001 directive gave EU Member States significant freedom in certain aspects of transposition. Member States had until 22 December 2002 to implement the directive into their national laws, although only Greece and Denmark met the deadline. The updated directive, which had been contested by lobbying groups on both sides of the issues, gives EU members until 2021 to revise their own country's laws to meet the new Directive's requirements. Articles 2–4 contain definitions of the exclusive rights granted to under copyright and related rights. They distinguish the 'reproduction right' (Article 2) from the right of 'communication to the public' or 'making available to the public' (Article 3): the latter is specifically intended to cover publication and transmission on the internet. The two names for the right derive from the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (Arts. 8 & 10 respectively). The related right for authors to authorise or prohibit any form of distribution to the public by sale or otherwise is provided for in Article 4 (exhaustion rights). Article 5 lists the copyright exceptions which Member States may apply to copyright and related rights. The restrictive nature of the list was one source of controversy over the directive: in principle, Member States may only apply exceptions which are on the agreed list, although other exceptions which were already in national laws on 2001-06-22 may remain in force . The Copyright Directive makes only one exception obligatory: transient or incidental copying as part of a network transmission or legal use. Hence internet service providers are not liable for the data they transmit, even if it infringes copyright. The other limitations are optional, with Member States choosing which they give effect to in national laws.