This morning, Politico Europe published a draft report [paywalled] by Therese Comodini Cachia (EPP), the Member of the European Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee responsible for the Parliament’s reaction to the Commission’s copyright reform proposal. MEP Julia Reda (European Pirate Party, Vice President Greens/EFA group) comments:
We now know that none of the controversial centrepieces of the copyright reform proposal enjoys majority support in the European Parliament. With Commissioner Oettinger gone, the Parliament seems poised to reject his legacy.
At first examination, the Legal Affairs Committee rapporteur is improving on almost all points of the Commission proposal, addressing the main concerns in terms of the protection of fundamental rights and access to information.
However, Ms. Comodini Cachia’s report falls short of addressing the fundamental problem that the reform was disappointingly unambitious to begin with. Fixing the worst proposals does not bring the reform in line with the Commission’s original stated goal of “tearing down national silos in copyright”: The rapporteur is not proposing further steps towards European harmonisation of the copyright framework, such as making all exceptions and limitations mandatory.
The report also does not address copyright issues internet users face on a daily basis. Surprisingly, it is the Culture Committee that has proposed an EU-wide copyright exception on user-generated content and remixing, which would legalise contemporary web culture.
Find more details in my briefing paper on the current state of affairs in the EU copyright reform.
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