Following a lengthy consultation process, on Friday 4 June the European Commission unveiled guidelines on applying filtering measures under Article 17 of the Directive (2019/790) on copyright in the digital single market, which will be applicable from Monday 7 June (see EUROPE 12222/6).
The 2019 reform of the EU copyright rules introduced a controversial article, which is intended to reduce the gap between the profits that platforms make from protected content and what creators actually receive (value gap). Platforms must now put in place filtering measures when they have not obtained the authorisation of a right holder regarding the distribution of a work.
The guidelines presented on Friday will help Member States to transpose Article 17 properly and consistently, thereby striking the best balance between respect for fundamental rights and the use of copyright exceptions.
In particular, there is clarification of the notion of authorisation as issued by a rights holder to a platform for the distribution of protected content. This could take the form of a formal licensing agreement or voluntary agreements. In some cases, permission could be granted free of charge in exchange for access to particular data or promotional activities. Member States have also been given advice on the type of authorisation that would be granted by users of a platform who are not acting in a commercial capacity, or those who receive limited income from their protected content online.
The European Commission has also noted that the outcome of Poland’s appeal to the EU Court of Justice against the copyright reform (case C-401/19) may result in changes to its guidelines.
See the guidelines: https://bit.ly/2Rnmb89 (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)