Barnier to seek sweeping reform of intellectual property regime
Strategy to highlight initiatives until 2014.
The European Commission is set to announce a wide-ranging strategy on intellectual property rights (IPR) and to signal its belief that internet service providers (ISPs) should share more of the responsibility for halting illegal downloading.
The long-awaited IPR strategy, which is to be published on 24 May, is aimed at bringing together all issues related to intellectual property. It will lay out what initiatives Michel Barnier, the European commissioner for the internal market, intends to present by 2014.
The launch of the strategy has been delayed several times as the Commission struggled to balance the conflicting aims of liberalising copyright systems – for example, to make it easier for music and film to be licensed across the EU – with the desire to protect artists’ rights and cultural diversity.
One of the most controversial aspects of the strategy will be enforcement of copyright law. Telecoms and internet companies fear that the Commission may place too great a burden on ISPs for policing illegal downloading and file-sharing.
Although Barnier is expected to say that all options remain open, he is likely to announce that the Commission will put forward proposals to revise the IPR enforcement directive of 2004 and to signal his belief that ISPs should play a role in preventing illegal sharing.
Concerned industry
Thierry Dieu, the acting director of the European Telecommunications Network Operators Association (ETNO), expressed concern. “Instead of evolving towards a more repressive approach, the upcoming IPR strategy should focus on how to address the cause of the problem and to ensure a wider availability of legitimate online content by adapting the copyright and licensing regimes to the online world and increasing consumer demand,” he said.
Barnier may allay some of the industry’s fears if, as expected, he indicates that the changes will not clash with existing rules on the liability of ISPs, notably those in the e-commerce directive.
The commissioner is also likely to disappoint groups that argue that existing national copyright systems should be replaced by a pan-European copyright licence. Proponents of this approach include music publishers and consumer groups.
Common rules
Similarly, Barnier is expected to stop short of proposing a complete overhaul of collective management of copyright. Instead, he is likely to say that the Commission will seek common rules for collecting societies, which license the rights of creators and collect and distribute their royalties. The rules would be designed to introduce greater transparency and to create a legal framework for the multi-territorial licensing of musical works online.
The strategy will also suggest that a range of other changes should be made, including reform of trademark systems and the extension of ‘geographical indications’ – a form of intellectual-property protection for food and drink – to other products. It will propose consultations on the online distribution
of audiovisual works and plans to resolve problems in the administration of copyright levies.
There is more uncertainty about whether the paper will announce at this stage a legislative proposal to facilitate the digitisation of ‘orphan works’ – books, newspapers or films that are protected by copyright but whose authors cannot be traced.