Update on European Copyright Developments

Dear list members,

As the moderator of the copyright discussion list of the European Copyright User Platform, I follow on the CNI list what goes on in the US and report about this on the ECUP-list.

This time I would like to inform you about what is happening at the European level. As most of you already know, the European Commission published on 20 November 1996, just before the WIPO Diplomatic Conference, its Follow-up to the Green Paper on Copyright and Related Rights in the Information Society.

In this Communication, the European Commission addresses all issues raised in the Commission's Green Paper and outlines four priorities for legislative action:

*Reproduction right
*Communication to the public right
*Legal protection for anti-copying systems
*Distribution right

It is expected that the European Commission will release Directive(s) on these issues at Easter this year.

Although Europe seems far away and not affecting US policy and legislation, Directive(s) from the European Commission on these issues will have an enormous impact on the development of copyright worldwide.

This already happened with the Directive on the legal protection of databases. Most of the proposals of Mr Jukka Liedes for the WIPO Diplomatic Conference were based on this Directive.

Besides this, during the WIPO Diplomatic Conference there was a lot of support from the European Union Member States for the initial proposals of Mr Jukka Liedes. Fortunately, the three weeks of negatiations resulted in fairly balanced Treaties. However, I am not sure if the same result will be achieved at the European level. We have to make sure that the results of WIPO will not be wiped out.

I would like to ask you all to have a look at the Follow-up of the Green Paper on Copyright from the European Commission and start discussing the contents of this document within your representative bodies and preferably forward your comments to the European Commission before Easter.

The Follow-up of the Green Paper on Copyright can be found at many locations, but also at the Web-site of the European Copyright User Platform under "Related Web-pages/European Commission DGXV" at

   http://www.kaapeli.fi/eblida/ecup

Kind regards,
Emanuella Giavarra
ecup.secr[_at_]dial.pipex.com Received on Wed Feb 19 1997 - 14:49:36 GMT