On Wednesday evening, the EU bodies finally agreed on the text of a new copyright directive, just one day before the deadline. “This is a step in the right direction,” says Cato Strøm, CEO of TONO.
/ 14/02/2019 / Kristian DugstadOn Wednesday evening, the EU bodies finally agreed on the text of a new copyright directive, just one day before the deadline. “This is a step in the right direction,” says Cato Strøm, CEO of TONO.
– We have had no guarantee that the negotiations would lead to an agreement. The parties have had until today, February 14. On Wednesday evening, at 21:08 PM, the announcement came that the Copyright Directive has been approved in the EU's Trialogue negotiations, says Cato Strøm.
For two years, the EU has been working on a new copyright directive. One of the purposes of the new legislation is to close the so-called the value gap. User-generated platforms like YouTube and Facebook believe they are not responsible for the content their users upload, so they pay little or nothing to the copyright holders who own the content.
This has been possible because of a loophole in an EU directive from 2000. Article 13 of the new Copyright Directive aims to close this loophole, and the value gap.
Read more about the value gap here: A gaping copyright hole
There has been great uncertainty surrounding the negotiations on the new directive text. The so-called The trialogue negotiations has been ongoing internally in EU bodies since autumn 2018.
– The last few weeks have been very exciting. If the parties had not reached an agreement by the deadline, we would have had to start over, two years back in time. When the announcement came last night, it was a great relief, says Strøm.
TONO is represented in the European TONO companies' lobby organization, GESAC, which has worked closely with the EU in this process.
read more about GESAC and about the important Article 13 of the Copyright Directive
Tomorrow TONO will participate in a review of the final text in Brussels. A group of legal experts will assess how well the legislation will protect copyright holders.
– We have only just seen the final text, but it looks promising. During the last few months of negotiations, several amendments have been put forward. Some we can live with, others not. Now we hope and believe that the Copyright Directive and Article 13 will live up to the mark, says Strøm.
The directive must now be approved by a council consisting of representatives from EU member states, before the EU Parliament will conduct the final vote in early April this year.
TONO publishes new information as soon as it is available.