TONO calls for literal implementation of important directive

In 2019, the EU decided that tech companies must take responsibility for user-uploaded content on their websites. Now the directive will become part of Norwegian law.

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 / 12/04/2021 / Kristian Dugstad

Multinational technology giants like Google and Facebook make billions from music content on their platforms, but have long refused to take responsibility for all the copyrighted content their users upload to platforms like YouTube. The problem, which has been dubbed value gap, has arisen as a result of a loophole in EU legislation.

Two years ago, the EU adopted a new copyright directive. The decision came after a long-running battle between technology companies and creators, and was aimed, among other things, at closing the value gap.

This will now be implemented in Norwegian law.

– As verbatim as possible

It was a victory for copyright when the European Parliament adopted the new Digital Markets Directive on March 26, 2019. A long and hard battle had been won.

However, the path from decision to reality is a laborious process that takes place in each individual country. As part of the preparatory work, the Ministry of Culture has asked interested parties for input on the legislation.

– The directive text has been carefully drafted to ensure a solution that balances the interests of users and rights holders. The goal is precisely to strengthen the rights holders' position vis-à-vis the large services. Therefore, the ministry must implement the text as verbatim as possible, says Inger Elise Mey, director of the Online Media department at TONO.

Mey has represented TONO in international legal work for a number of years, and has worked actively with the input to the ministry.

Read TONO's input here.

In line with the RiksTV ruling

In addition to the Digital Markets Directive, the Online and Retransmission Directive is also to be implemented into Norwegian law. The Ministry of Culture has also requested input on this.

The directive aims to finally establish that actors who retransmit TV content with music must themselves license their use that is not covered by the broadcaster's license.

In its submission, TONO emphasizes that if two actors exploit music rights, it is reasonable for the remuneration to reflect the real value of the turnover. It makes no commercial sense to only pay for the exploitation of one.

In 2012, TONO filed a lawsuit against RiksTV after a long-standing dispute about this. In 2018, a unanimous Supreme Court ruled in TONO's favor in the case., and thereby confirmed that TONO's understanding of the legislation was correct.