European Union copyright overhaul follows Australian lead

Just days after the European Union move to update 20-year old copyright laws seemed to have fallen apart – leaving the global music industry stunned – the landscape changed.

Last week, negotiators from the EU countries, the European Parliament and the European Commission finalised a deal after day-long negotiations with a tweak of the text for the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market.

EU digital chief Andrus Ansip said in a tweet: “Europeans will finally have modern copyright rules fit for digital age with real benefits for everyone: guaranteed rights for users, fair remuneration for creators, clarity of rules for platforms.”

The EU copyright reform, in fact, follows what Australia put in place some years ago.

Under the new rules, the owners of online platforms as YouTube, Facebook and Instagram have to sign licensing agreements with rights holders such as musicians, performers, authors, news publishers and journalists to use their work online.

They also must bear the responsibility of setting up filters to remove copyright-infringement material from their platforms.

Dean Ormston, chief executive of APRA AMCOS, tells TMN, “Under Australian copyright law, online platforms that share content are already prevented from relying on our copyright safe harbour provisions and are required to enter into licences with rights holders.

“APRA AMCOS has licence agreements in place with YouTube, Facebook and Instagram and these include take-down provisions for songwriters and music publishers.”

At the end of last year, the Australian government consulted on the introduction of a series of more flexible exceptions to copyright which would permit a broader range of uses of music without the need to obtain a licence.

Ormston reveals, “ “The Australian music industry opposed the introduction of these broader exceptions as they effectively chip away at the rights of music creators and make it harder to earn a living from the copyright in your music.

“It now seems like these proposed reforms will not be introduced in the immediate future.”

As for what areas APRA AMCOS thinks copyright law needs to be tightened to protect Australian creators and rights holders, Ormston suggests, “APRA AMCOS would still like the government to clarify the copyright authorisation provisions in the Act, especially as they apply in the online environment.

“The provisions make it clear that if a third party knows about a copyright infringement and takes no reasonable steps to prevent the infringement, it is also liable.

“Ever since the High Court’s decision in the iiNet case there has been ambiguity over how these provisions would apply to online services, including ISPs.

“The other regulatory area which needs tightening (which admittedly is not in the Copyright Act) is the proper application of the Australian music categories to commercial radio services as the current regime is not operating as intended.”

The new EU copyright laws exempt from needing the filtering those online platforms which are less than three years old, generate less than €10 million (A$15.8 million) in revenue and have fewer than 5 million monthly users.

The agreement needs approval from the European Parliament and EU countries before it can become law.

That is expected to be a formality, set for late spring.

EU member states will then have between 18-24 months to individually transpose its requirements into national law.

No new revisions are permitted at the voting stage, meaning that the directive text as agreed on Feb. 13 is the set version.

The final text has not been released officially to the music industry yet.

Helen Smith, executive chair of indies association IMPALA comments: “We need to see the final text, but this legislation will be the first time anywhere in the world that there is absolute confirmation that user upload services are covered by copyright and need a licence.”