EU Parliament rejects restrictions on freedom of panorama and ancillary right over news content
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| Commissioner Oettinger was very active on Twitter this morning ... |
This morning the plenary of the European Parliament voted on the draft Report on the implementation of the InfoSoc Directive, as originally drafted [here] by MEP and Pirate Party member Julia Reda and as approved (with amendments) [here] by the Legal Committee a few days ago.
By 445 votes to 65 (with 32 abstentions), the Parliament adopted a non-binding resolution [UPDATE on 10/7/2015 at 11:14 am GMT: the text of the resolution is available here] which assesses the implementation of the key aspects of this EU directive ahead of upcoming Commission plans [here] to update the relevant legislative framework in the area of copyright.
Whilst the consolidated version of the Report as passed by the Parliament is yet to be made available, it would appear that this morning's vote was mostly remarkable for two distinct aspects.
Freedom of panorama not to be restricted
First, the plenary removed the proposal by MEP Jean-Marie Cavada to restrict the scope of freedom of panorama [here and here], as currently envisaged in Article 5(3)(h) of the InfoSoc Directive.
This provision allows Member States to introduce into their own national copyright laws an exception to the rights of reproduction, communication/making available to the public and distribution to allow "use of works, such as works of architecture or sculpture, made to be located permanently in public places".
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| ... Tweeting about freedom of panorama |
In her original draft Report, Ms Reda had proposed that this optional exception [Member States like Italy and France do not currently envisage it] be made mandatory for Member States to have into their own legal regimes.
The version passed by the Legal Committee however contained a recommendation that "the commercial use of photographs, video footage or other images of works which are permanently located in physical public places should always be subject to prior authorisation from the authors or any proxy acting for them".
This morning the Parliament removed such proposal to restrict freedom of panorama. Moreover EU Commissioner Günther Oettinger clarified that the EU would not limit freedom of panorama, so that "[p]eople can take pictures of whatever they see in public places." Wait a second: does this mean that the Commission intends to table proposals to amend the InfoSoc Directive, particularly its optional system of exceptions and limitations in Article 5 thereof? Who knows ...
No EU-wide ancillary right over news content
The second major news of the morning was that the Parliament also rejected proposals from a number of German MEPs to introduce an EU-wide ancillary right over news content.
Whilst readers may remember that not long time ago this idea appeared to meet the favour of Commissioner Goettinger himself [here and here], they will also remember that initiatives of this kind have been adopted in Germany [here, here,and here] and Spain [here, here, and here].
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| ... And forthcoming EU copyright reform (details of how yet to be defined though) |
Now it would appear that the idea of creative an EU-wide right over news content may not be that likely to happen in the immediate future, possibly also on consideration of the criticisms expressed even by the beneficiaries of the relevant levies at the German and Spanish levels.
And now?
As mentioned, the resolution adopted by the Parliament is not a binding one.
Arguably the ball is now back [but had it ever left it, wonders Merpel] in the Commission's court. This means that we have probably just to wait and see whether and how the Commission intends to reform copyright.
When will this be? Again, who knows. But possibly sometime after the summer break.
