Posted on 07/26/2021 7:36:00 PM PDT by algore
BRUSSELS, July 26 (Reuters) - France, Spain, Italy and 20 other EU countries may be taken to court for their tardiness in enacting landmark EU copyright rules into national law, the European Commission said on Monday as it asked the group to explain the delays.
The copyright rules, adopted two years ago, aim to ensure a level playing field between the European Union's trillion-euro creative industries and online platforms such as Google, owned by Alphabet (GOOGL.O), and Facebook (FB.O).
Some of Europe's artists and broadcasters, however, are still not happy, in particular over the interpretation of a key provision, Article 17, which is intended to force sharing platforms such as YouTube and Instagram to filter copyrighted content.
The Commission said it had sent letters of formal notice, the first step of its infringement proceedings, to the countries group asking for explanations. The deadline for enacting the EU rules was June 7.
The other countries are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Finland, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia and Slovakia.
They have two months to respond to the Commission or receive a warning, known as a reasoned opinion. The next step is a referral to the EU's top court in Luxembourg.
The EU executive also said it had asked France, Spain and 19 other EU countries to explain why they missed a June 7 deadline to enact separate copyright rules for online transmission of radio and TV programmes.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
So, 24 out of 27 EU nations have “voted with their feet,” so to speak, and yet the EU can still force them to accede?
(And, yes, a pox on Disney!)
Agreed. Copyright law is totally insane these days. I've done proofing work for Project Gutenberg. Corporations want eternal copyright, and we seem to have the best legislooters that money can buy.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.