Page 110 - Law and the Media

New Media
4.3.5 European directives and international conventions

European directives

There is little harmonization of copyright laws throughout the Member States of the
European Union. In an effort to provide a more uniform system of regulation, the European
Union has recently approved two directives that promote and facilitate the exchange of
information in new media formats.

The Copyright Directive
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The Copyright Directive (2001/29/EC) was approved in 2001 and is aimed at ensuring that
all works protected by copyright are adequately protected throughout the European Union.
It places particular emphasis on new media products and systems and legislates specifically
in respect of the ‘reproduction right’, distribution and the legal protection of anti-copying
devices. The Government is required under European Union law to give domestic effect to
the Copyright Directive by 22 December 2002. The Copyright Directive will automatically
amend the CDPA.

However, the Copyright Directive sets out an exhaustive list of situations in which Member
States may provide exceptions or defences to infringement of copyright. This gives national
governments the power to adapt the rules to suit national needs, and may result in different
regulations in different Member States.

The E-commerce Directive
The E-commerce Directive (2000/31/EC) was approved in 2000 and is aimed at harmonizing
certain legal aspects of ‘information society services’ in Europe, in particular electronic
commerce. The Government is required under European Union law to give domestic effect
to the E-commerce Directive by 17 January 2002.

Article 13 of the E-commerce Directive provides that internet service providers will not be
liable for breach of copyright or other intellectual property rights by ‘caching’, or storing,
information on the Internet as long as they comply with any conditions of access to the
information imposed by the owner and do not modify the information. In addition, they must
act expeditiously to remove or disable access to information if they are informed that the
information has been removed from the Internet or a court has ordered that the information
must be removed or disabled. However, under Article 15 of the E-commerce directive an
Internet service provider is not obliged to monitor the information and content it transmits
and stores.

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The Copyright Directive can be found at the European Union On-Line web site at www.europa.eu.int at
http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/lif/dat/2001/en_301L0029.html.
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