The Harmonisation of EU Copyright Law: The Originality Standard
31 Pages Posted: 30 Jun 2016
Date Written: June 29, 2016
Abstract
Almost 25 years have gone by since the first EU Directive in the field of copyright was enacted Directive 91/250/EEC of 14 May 1991 on the legal protection of computer programs now consolidated in Directive 2009/24/EC of 23 April 2009). As with many other directives that followed, that Directive was “vertical” in scope, meaning that its “harmonising” effects were limited to the specific subject matter therein regulated (in this case, software). Similar examples of “vertical harmonisation” are found in the field of photographs and databases as well as in almost any other EU Copyright Directive, making this fragmented approach a typical trait of EU Copyright law harmonisation. The reason for what could be labelled ‘piecemeal legislation’ can be linked to the limited power that the EU had, until recently, in regulating copyright. As it can be easily verified from their preambles, all EU Copyright Directives are mainly grounded in the smooth functioning of the internal market. It is the internal market ― rather than copyright ― that has driven the harmonisation of EU copyright law to date.
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