Research Handbook on the Future of EU Copyright

Abstract

It has been over fifteen years since the EU started harmonizing copyright law. This original Handbook takes stock and questions what the future of EU copyright should be. What went wrong with the harmonization acquits? What did the directives do well? Should copyright be further harmonized? Each of the 25 recognized copyright experts from different European countries gives a critical account of the EU harmonization carried out on several aspects of copyright law (subject-matter, originality, duration, rights, defenses etc.), and asks whether further harmonization is desirable or not. This way, the Handbook not only gives guidance to European institutions as to what remains to be done or needs to be remedied but is also the first overall picture of current and future EU copyright law.

This Handbook will be of great interest to academics and intellectual property lawyers, as well as general commercial lawyers, across Europe because it reviews European directives in the field of copyright and also the relationships between copyright and other laws. Policymakers will also find much to interest them in the discussions regarding the future of EU copyright law and the proposed amendments to the existing legal framework.

Keywords: copyright, Europe, intellectual property