Ian Hargreaves and Bernt Hugenholtz, Copyright Reform for Growth and Jobs: Modernising the European Copyright Framework, The Lisbon Council, issue 13/2013.
Today, the Lisbon Council launches a new policy brief, Copyright Reform for Growth and Jobs: Modernising the European Copyright Framework. Written by Ian Hargreaves, professor of digital economy, University of Cardiff; author, Digital Opportunity: A Review of Intellectual Property and Growth ("the Hargreaves report") and senior fellow at the Lisbon Council; and Bernt Hugenholtz, professor of intellectual property law and director of the Institute for Information Law, University of Amsterdam and academic adviser to the Lisbon Council. The paper was launched in Brussels at the High-Level Roundtable on Making the Copyright Regime Fit for the Digital Age.
"Copyright law is struggling to adapt to the dynamic impact of digital technologies. The economic consequences of this failure to adjust, though yet to be fully and reliably quantified, are significant and growing.
The litany of problems is familiar. Businesses complain about the difficulties of securing multi-territorial licences in Europe; scientific and medical researchers say copyright is getting in the way of their work by impeding text and data mining; cultural organisations do not know how to clear their archives for digital public use; consumers are often blocked from easy access to content and services that ought to be readily available to them; creative industries lament the impact on their businesses from online rights violations; authors complain they are not getting paid; some users grumble coverage is too broad and enforcement remedies excessive; the courts are in a tangle, with judges calling for greater clarity. Meanwhile, content-company lobbyists are locked in a three-way regulatory stalemate with technology firms and telecommunications companies.
The bottom line is clear no matter where you sit in this debate: copyright law in the European Union has lost touch with the digital economy of today and tomorrow. A mechanism put in place to promote creation by ensuring fair rewards for creators is becoming, in important respects, a hindrance to deeper development of Europe’s digital economy, a stain on the online experience of many consumers and an impediment to promoting the innovation Europe so desperately needs."
Lees de policy hier.