1. Copyright in Europe and its impact
ALA - IRC
June, 26th 2011, New Orleans
Harald Müller

2. Gesetz über Urheberrecht (Germany)
Protezione del diritto d'autore e di altri diritti connessi al suo esercizio (Italy)
Code de la propriété intellectuelle (France)
Auteurswet (Belgium, Netherlands)
The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (UK)
Закон о ауторском и сродним правима (Serbia)
Bundesgesetz über Urheberrecht (Austria)

3. Europe and Internet

4. The mission of the Expert Group on Information Law (EGIL) is to:
Maintain a good awareness of legal issues that affect the provision and circulation of information, especially where libraries and archives are concerned
Address the European institutions by making suggestions regarding laws, or changes to laws that would improve the legal position of libraries and archives
Cooperate and work with other organizations and institutions for these purposes.

5. Copyright in Europe 27 national copyright laws
Mostly no „fair use“ (17 U.S.C. § 107)
except UK & Irland („fair dealing“)
„exceptions and limitations“
Discrimination of digital library activities by copyright law

6. Copyright challenges in Europe
Harmonization of copyright
Term of protection & proposal to extend the term of copyright protection
Orphan works
Document delivery
(Exceptions v. contracts / data mining / out of print works / three strikes law)

7. 1

8. „harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright“
Just ONE mandatory article
95% of directive voluntary for EU members
Copyright law in Europe is splittered in hundreds of different statutory regulations
Transborder effect of internet is NOT reflected in any national copyright law

9. Term of protection
Council Directive 2006/116/EC of 12 December 2006 harmonizing the term of protection of copyright and certain related rights:
Article 1 Duration of authors' rights
“The rights of an author of a literary or artistic work within the meaning of Article 2 of the Berne Convention shall run for the life of the author and for 70 years after his death, irrespective of the date when the work is lawfully made available to the public.” 2
After 70 years the work is in the Public Domain

10. Term extension

11. Term of protection: from 50 to 95 years
sound recordings
in favour of musicians (studio, concert)
supply of twilight years (age of retirement)
initiative of music industry
BUT: EU study „Recasting of Copyright and Related Rights for the Knowledge Economy“ came 2006 to contrary results
also: Gowers Report UK 2006

13. Denmark is now for term extension
27 Feb. 2011:

14. Orphan works legal options3
Orphan works legal options
1. No action
The assumption is that there are not orphan works. If you continue searching, you will eventually find the right holders.
2. Statutory exception
After a diligent search, if the right holders are not found, it could be possible to use the orphan work, without being exposed to liability. Two cases are possible:
2.1 without compensation. Remuneration is done only if the right holder appears.
2.2 compensation to a collecting society.
3. Extensive collective licenses (Nordic model)
Based on the legal authorisation that the collecting societies have the rights to represent all the right owners. One of the problems is that, if collecting societies, they get paid any way, they do not have a real interest to search for the right owner.
4. Canadian model:
After a diligent search, the government gives a licence.
diligent search

16. Article 6 Permitted uses of orphan works
DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on mutual recognition of orphan works in the print sector
Article 2
Orphan works
(1) A work shall be considered an orphan work if the rightholder in the work is not identified or, even if identified, is not located after a diligent search for the rightholder has been carried out and recorded in accordance with Article 3.
(2) Where a work has more than one rightholder, and one of the rightholders has been identified and located, that work shall not be considered an orphan work. …
Article 6 Permitted uses of orphan works
1. Member States shall ensure that the organisations referred to in Article 1(1) are permitted to use an orphan work in the following ways:
(a) by making the orphan work available, within the meaning of Article 3 of Directive 2001/29/EC;
(b) by acts of reproduction, within the meaning of Article 2 of Directive 2001/29/EC, for the purposes of digitization, making available, indexing, cataloguing, preservation or restoration…
Article 3 of Directive 2001/29/EC: “… the making available to the public of their works in such a way that members of the public may access them from a place and at a time individually chosen by them.”

18. 4 Document delivery ILL Kenneth Crews WIPO Study 2008, pp. 57- 63:
Statutes on ILL copying = 6 countries
Statutes on supplying = 17 countries
Statutes on digital ILL = 2 (Germany)
“The general nature of library exceptions is to place the responsibility on the librarians to determine whether they are acting within the meaning of the law.”
Digital ILL = mostly by license, not by statute law

19. Digital libraries in Europe
Current copyright law puts a lot of obstacles in libraries‘ ways for digitisation projects
Discrimination of digital libraries
Burden is always on the libraries
BUT: there is some light at the end of the tunnel
draft EU Directive for Orphan Works
draft WIPO Treaty on copyright exceptions and limitations for Libraries and Archives
EBLIDA: Libraries stand for freedom of information.

20. Conclusion Copyright is a permanent challenge for libraries.
Lobbying is:
Important
Successful
EBLIDA-EGIL „will keep on keeping on“ (BOB DYLAN)
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR ATTENTION !

21. European Copyright and its Impact
The European Subcommittee of the International Relations Committee organized a panel discussion on the topic of "European Copyright and its Impact" at the American Library Association annual conference, which took place on June 26, Harald Müller's participation was financed by the Goethe-Institut New York and Olaf Eigenbrodt's by the Goethe-Institut Copenhagen. The American copyright expert Kevin L. Smith was also invited. Winston Tabb, Dean of University Libraries and Museums at The Johns Hopkins University, kindly agreed to act as a moderator.