BREAKING: Politico publishes (part of) draft copyright report by MEP Comodini Cachia

MEP Therese
Comodini Cachia

Politico Europe (PRO version) has just published part [so far only the odd pages] of the text of the draft report that MEP Comodini Cachia is preparing on the European Commission's copyright package - including the proposal for a directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market [Katposts here] - at the request of the European Parliament. 

The IPKat has been able to access this part of the text of the draft report, and here are some of the most interesting proposals included therein.

Press publishers' right to disappear and be replaced by a presumption of representation

MEP Comodini Cachia appears willing to suggest that this proposed new sui generis right should be dumped subject to a significant re-thinking. 

In particular, the draft report proposes to re-write Article 11(1) of the proposed directive as follows:

"Member States shall provide publishers of press publications with a presumption of representation of authors of literary works contained therein and the legal capacity to sue in their own name when defending the rights of such authors for the digital use of their press publications."

The future of the
proposed
press publishers' right?

Together with a re-writing of Article 11(1) comes also the deletion of Article 11(4). This paragraph, in the Commission's original proposal, would have made the new press publishers' right subject to a 20-year duration.

Value gap proposal to be clarified

In relation to the so called value gap proposal in Article 13, in her draft report MEP Comodini Cachia notes how the liability regime envisaged therein is complementary to the one already established in the E-commerce Directive, to the extent that Article 13 seeks to ensure the effective implementation of agreements concluded between online service providers and rightholders for the use of works.

In this sense, Article 13 should provide clarity as to which online service providers it refers to, and should use the same classification employed in the E-Commerce.

According to MEP Comodini Cachia, the implementation of agreements between online service providers and rightholders may be carried through technological measures, but these must be respectful of the copyright acquis in its entirety, including relevant exceptions and limitations.

I have only seen part of the newly worded Recital 38, but MEP Comodini Cachia proposes to clarify that the obligation of online service providers to conlcude licensing agreements with rightholders only arises when they are "actively and directly involved in the making available of user uploaded content and where this activity is not of a mere technical, automatic and passive nature".

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Further details on the draft report will be provided as soon as they become available: stay tuned!