Commission takes first steps to broaden access to online content and outlines its vision to modernise EU copyright rules
Uit het persbericht: "Delivering on its Digital Single Market strategy, the Commission today presents a proposal to allow Europeans to travel with their online content and an action plan to modernise EU copyright rules.
At present, Europeans travelling within the EU may be cut off from online services providing films, sports broadcasts, music, e-books or games that they have paid for in their home country. Today's proposed Regulation on the cross-border portability of online content services addresses these restrictions in order to allow EU residents to travel with the digital content they have purchased or subscribed to at home. Cross-border portability, a new EU right for consumers, is expected to be a reality in 2017, the same year as the end of roaming charges in the EU (press release). Since it is a proposal for a Regulation, once adopted it will be directly applicable in all 28 EU Member States.
In addition, the Commission today outlines its vision of a modern EU copyright framework. This "political preview" will be translated into legislative proposals and policy initiatives in the next six months, taking into account all inputs from several public consultations.
Overall, the Commission wants to make sure that Europeans can access a wide legal offer of content, while ensuring that authors and other rights holders are better protected and fairly remunerated. The key sectors of education, culture, research and innovation will also benefit from a more modern and European framework. [...]
The Commission's action plan is built on four complementary pillars of equal importance. It also sets out a long-term vision for copyright in the EU [...].
1. Widening access to content across the EU
Today's rules on the content portability represent a first step towards improving access to cultural works. For example: a French user of the online service MyTF1 for films and series is not able to rent a new film while on business trip to the UK. A Dutch subscriber to Netflix travelling to Germany is only able to watch films offered by Netflix to German consumers. If he visits Poland, he is not able to watch films on Netflix as Netflix is not available in Poland. This will change. When travelling across the EU, users will have access to their music, films and games as if they were at home (see factsheet on the new rules).
More will be proposed in spring...
Uit het persbericht: "Delivering on its Digital Single Market strategy, the Commission today presents a proposal to allow Europeans to travel with their online content and an action plan to modernise EU copyright rules.
At present, Europeans travelling within the EU may be cut off from online services providing films, sports broadcasts, music, e-books or games that they have paid for in their home country. Today's proposed Regulation on the cross-border portability of online content services addresses these restrictions in order to allow EU residents to travel with the digital content they have purchased or subscribed to at home. Cross-border portability, a new EU right for consumers, is expected to be a reality in 2017, the same year as the end of roaming charges in the EU (press release). Since it is a proposal for a Regulation, once adopted it will be directly applicable in all 28 EU Member States.
In addition, the Commission today outlines its vision of a modern EU copyright framework. This "political preview" will be translated into legislative proposals and policy initiatives in the next six months, taking into account all inputs from several public consultations.
Overall, the Commission wants to make sure that Europeans can access a wide legal offer of content, while ensuring that authors and other rights holders are better protected and fairly remunerated. The key sectors of education, culture, research and innovation will also benefit from a more modern and European framework. [...]
The Commission's action plan is built on four complementary pillars of equal importance. It also sets out a long-term vision for copyright in the EU [...].
1. Widening access to content across the EU
Today's rules on the content portability represent a first step towards improving access to cultural works. For example: a French user of the online service MyTF1 for films and series is not able to rent a new film while on business trip to the UK. A Dutch subscriber to Netflix travelling to Germany is only able to watch films offered by Netflix to German consumers. If he visits Poland, he is not able to watch films on Netflix as Netflix is not available in Poland. This will change. When travelling across the EU, users will have access to their music, films and games as if they were at home (see factsheet on the new rules).
More will be proposed in spring...