A Critical View on the European Commission’s Proposal for a Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market

Abstract

This paper analyses the European Commission’s Proposal for a Directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market of 14 September 2016. After a critical overview of the proposal, that fails to provide a real - long awaited - reform of European copyright law, the paper focuses on the most salient and problematic provisions, namely (i) text and data mining exception; (ii) new ancillary right for press publishers; (iii) mandatory cooperation between Internet Service Providers and copyright holders on User Generated Contents; (iv) use of out-of-commerce works by cultural heritage institutions; and (v) fair remuneration in contracts of authors and performers. And provide remarks and suggestions. As a general view, the paper is suggesting the abandonment of an “exclusionary” copyright mechanism in all cases where the public interest to spread culture and information may marry economic exploitation, by adopting instead a mechanism of open paying access.

Keywords: European Commission’s Proposal for a Directive on Copyright, Snippets, Ancillary Rights for Publishers, ISP Liabiltiy