Source: https://www.communia-association.org/2018/12/12/art-4-2-goes-cjeu-landmark-ruling-copyright-exceptions/
Timestamp: 2020-07-09 21:45:46
Document Index: 515315611

Matched Legal Cases: ['Art 4', 'CJEU ', 'CJEU ', 'CJEU ', 'CJEU ', 'CJEU ', 'art.4', 'CJEU ']

Art 4/2 goes against CJEU landmark ruling on copyright exceptions - International Communia Association
December 12, 2018 — Teresa Nobre	Share this article:Deel op FacebookDeel op Twitter
The CJEU further clarified that it was not against the 3-step test to require an existing contractual relation, and not mere prospects of contracts or licences, to rule out the application of the exception.
In conclusion, the Court decided, the concept of (works and other subject-matter not subject to) ‘purchase or licensing terms’ must be understood as requiring that the rightholder and an establishment must have actually agreed on contractual terms and concluded a licensing agreement.
How to bypass a court ruling that does not favour rightholders, and set a dangerous precedent for user rights?
The CJEU represented a major win for users’ rights, since it protected users’ “right to benefit” from an exception and made it clear that users could not be unilaterally forced to stop relying on an exception if rightsholders offered to license them the works and uses covered by the exception.
Naturally, the rightholders were not happy with the CJEU ruling and it was expectable that they would advocate for wording that would prevent the immediate application of that ruling to the new exceptions. What was not expectable was that the EU lawmakers would so easily bypass a decision that protects fundamental rights of the EU citizens.
In the proposed DSM Directive, the Commission opted to propose a new mandatory exception for educational purposes that Member States can decide to switch off, provided that licenses are “easily available in the market”. The selected wording is clearly intended to go against the CJEU ruling on TU Darmstadt: no contractual relation is needed to rule out the application of the exception; a mere license offer, a license that is “easily available in the market”, is enough to deny the establishments the right to benefit from the exception, even if they do not agree to the terms and conditions of said license.
The European Parliament understood the problems at issue and approved a version of art.4(2) that would only give priority to “license agreements”, and not mere license offers. However, that version did not made its way to the compromise position that will be discussed in tomorrow’s trilogue.
If the compromise position is approved, this means that over the coming years educators and learners could benefit from a new education exception only to see it disappear and be replaced by licensing schemes. Worst: the EU lawmakers would create a precedent for overrides to any public interest copyright law exceptions. As such, it is a great victory for rightsholders, and a great loss for users, who can no longer rely on the CJEU decisions that try to rebalance the public and private interests that justify the copyright system.
This entry was posted in EU policy and tagged copyright for education, copyright reform, digital single market, eu-policy, exceptions and limitations, fixcopyright, users rights. Bookmark the permalink.
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