Lisbon faces uphill struggle to clinch deal on copyright

Date: 10/02/2000

By Peter Chapman

LISBON faces a tough challenge to get agreement on planned new copyright rules for the digital age by the March target date it has set itself.

The Portuguese presidency is hoping to persuade EU internal market ministers to sign up to a 'common position' on the draft legislation at a meeting on 16 March, and is planning a series of meetings in the next few weeks to try to settle the most contentious issues.

But diplomats warn that Lisbon will have its work cut out to make progress on one of the trickiest dossiers currently on the Council of Ministers' negotiating table, after its Finnish predecessor failed to seal an accord.

"Member states have noted over a hundred reservations on the current text," said one insider, adding: "That means they will have to work very hard to get rid of them."

The proposed directive, first unveiled by the Commission in 1997 but amended last May to take account of some of the demands made by MEPs, is aimed at ensuring a fair balance between rightsholders and users in a world where technology now allows perfect digital copies to be made. It states that, in general, artists should have the right to prevent people making digital copies of their works.

One of the key issues standing in the way of a swift accord is the content of a list of 'fair use' exemptions to these rules - such as copying by libraries and the disabled - which individual member states would be allowed to add to the legislation.

Some EU governments, such as Germany, want a harmonised list of specific exemptions, while others, including the Finns, insist that the list should be less detailed.

There is also a dispute over the legal protection which the directive would provide for 'technical measures' used by rights holders to prevent digital material from being copied without authorisation. Member states have yet to decide whether this should apply to groups which are given exemptions from the copyrights rules.

However, another issue which had been expected to spark major arguments - the question of whether member states which do not currently impose a levy on blank tapes, cassettes or videos to reimburse artists for private copying should be forced to do so - now looks likely to be settled without much difficulty.

The formula proposed by the Commission, which argues that private copying should be tolerated provided artists received fair remuneration for the revenue lost to private copying, would leave it up to individual governments to decide how to fund this compensation.

Diplomats say this is likely to placate the three member states - the UK, Ireland and Luxembourg - which do not run levy schemes and are reluctant to introduce them.

Lisbon faces a tough challenge to get agreement on planned new copyright rules for the digital age by the March 2000 target date it has set itself.