Changes to copyright rules

On 26 March 2019, the European Parliament adopted a new controversial draft directive on copyright in the EU Digital Single Market. Most criticized was especially a provision of Article 17, according to which the domestic legislation must impose upon service providers such as Youtube or Facebook an obligation to introduce filtration mechanisms in relation to their content subject to copyright protection.

The draft directive also affects search engines providers such as Google, which can be potentially precluded by Article 11 from using media articles, as they are to be protected to the same extent as copyright works. The draft directive is yet to be approved by the European Council, whereby the member states must transpose it within 12 months. [For more information about possible further developments, please consult our website.]