The European Parliament and the Council of the EU are preparing for battle on the final negotiation on copyright.
On Friday, 18 January, the ambassadors will discuss a final compromise text submitted by the Romanian Presidency of the Council. The latter proposes, on the basis of the neighbouring right, to use a size criterion and, on the basis of the value gap, to exclude SMEs from the definition of platforms.
Parliament's shadow rapporteurs will meet on Monday, 21 January, a few hours before the final trilogue meeting.
The Romanian text, dated Thursday, 17 January, calls on Member States to show flexibility in order to find compromises on this text, which introduces new exceptions to copyright rules and lays down new provisions to ensure better protection of protected works.
On the creation of a neighbouring right for newspaper publishers (Article 11), Bucharest proposes to extend this right to two years and to exclude from this new protection “special words” and “very short extracts”, following the example of what currently exists in Germany.
On the value gap (Article 13), the Presidency suggests excluding small and medium-sized enterprises from the definition of “online content sharing providers”. SMEs would thus be exempted from entering into licensing agreements, including when they carry out an act of communication.
On remuneration (Article -14), the Romanian Presidency refers in a recital to “appropriate and proportionate remuneration” for authors and performers, stipulating remuneration resembling that of a lump sum.
See the Romanian compromise text: http://bit.ly/2W2iTVs. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)