Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market

This article is about the 2019 Directive. For the 2001 Directive, see Information Society Directive.

Directive 2019/790
European Union directive
Text with EEA relevance
TitleDirective (EU) 2019/790 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market and amending Directives 96/9/EC and 2001/29/EC
Made underArticles 53(1), 62 and 114
Journal referenceL 130, 17 May 2019
History
European Parliament vote
348 / 622
Date made17 April 2019
Entry into force6 June 2019
Implementation date7 June 2021
Other legislation
AmendsDatabase Directive (Directive 96/9/EC)
Information Society Directive (Directive 2001/29/EC)

The Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, formally the Directive (EU) 2019/790 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market and amending Directives 96/9/EC and 2001/29/EC, is a European Union (EU) directive which has been adopted and came into force on 7 June 2019. It is intended to ensure "a well-functioning marketplace for copyright".[1] It extends existing European Union copyright law and is a component of the EU's Digital Single Market project.[2] The Council of the European Union describes their key goals with the Directive as protecting press publications; reducing the "value gap" between the profits made by Internet platforms and by content creators; encouraging collaboration between these two groups, and creating copyright exceptions for text- and data-mining.[3]

The directive was introduced by the European Parliament Committee on Legal Affairs on 20 June 2018, and a revised proposal was approved by the parliament on 12 September 2018. The final version, which resulted from negotiations during formal trilogue meetings, was presented to the parliament on 13 February 2019.[4] The measure was approved by the European Parliament on 26 March 2019[5][6][7] and the directive was approved by the Council of the European Union on 15 April 2019.[8] Member states have two years to pass appropriate legislation to meet the Directive's requirements.[9]

The directive has generally been opposed by major tech companies and a vocal number of Internet users, as well as human rights advocates, but supported by media groups and conglomerates, including newspapers and publishers. Two of the Directive's articles have drawn significant discussion. Draft Article 11 (Article 15 of the directive), known as the "link tax", gives newspapers more direct control and re-use of their work, which may impact some Internet services like news aggregators. Draft Article 13 (Article 17 of the directive) tasks service providers that host user-generated content to employ "effective and proportionate" measures to prevent users from violating copyright. Tech companies expressed concern that this would necessitate the need for upload filters. A broad concern with the Directive is on the use of fair dealing through the directive, and that it could quell freedom of speech.

  1. ^ European Commission (14 September 2016). "Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on copyright in the Digital Single Market". Archived from the original on 23 June 2018. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
  2. ^ European Commission (28 August 2015). "The EU copyright legislation". Archived from the original on 5 July 2018. Retrieved 4 July 2018.
  3. ^ "Copyright rules for the digital environment: Council agrees its position – Consilium". Europa (web portal). Archived from the original on 13 June 2018. Retrieved 1 July 2018.
  4. ^ "EU reaches provisional deal on online copyright reform". afp.omni.se (in Swedish). 13 February 2019. Archived from the original on 14 February 2019. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  5. ^ Volpicelli, Gian. "The EU has passed Article 13, but Europe's meme war is far from over". Archived from the original on 12 September 2018. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  6. ^ Vincent, James (26 March 2019). "Europe's controversial overhaul of online copyright receives final approval". The Verge. Retrieved 26 March 2019.
  7. ^ Kleinman, Zoe (26 March 2019). "EU backs controversial copyright law". BBC. Retrieved 26 March 2019.
  8. ^ Browne, Ryan (15 April 2019). "Article 13: EU Council backs copyright law that could hit YouTube, FB". CNBC. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
  9. ^ "Digital Single Market Copyright Directive: EU to start dialogue with stakeholder". International Insider. 15 October 2019. Archived from the original on 15 October 2019. Retrieved 15 October 2019.