Progress on EU copyright law
The majority of EU member states have agreed on a draft directive with which they intend to enter into further negotiations on the EU Copyright Directive. The agreement was based on a compromise between Germany and France.
The last round of negotiations was canceled after eleven of the 28 EU countries rejected the compromise proposal submitted by Romania. In addition to Article 11, which provides for the introduction of an EU-wide ancillary copyright for press publishers, Article 13 is particularly controversial. It is intended to oblige platforms to check whether uploading the respective content infringes copyright.
The compromise now reached between Germany and France excludes platforms that are less than three years old, have an annual turnover of less than ten million euros and less than five million users per month from the provisions of Article 13. In addition to the German Music Council and the Landesmusikrat NRW, numerous other cultural associations support the adoption of the EU directive on copyright in the digital single market.
If further negotiations with the European Parliament and the EU Commission are successful, the directive could be adopted before the European elections in May. The German Music Council welcomes the agreement reached by the EU member states.
