Copyright

• Author: International Law Group

With Directive 2001/29/EC "on the harmonization of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society," the European Union is harmonizing its rules for copyright. The Preamble notes that this Directive implements several of the new international obligations arising from the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (Preamble (15)).

The Directive is related to the new Directive on electronic commerce (2000 O.J. (L 178) 1, 17 July 2000), and should be implemented within the same time frame (Preamble (16)). The new Directive specifies certain aspects of copyright, especially as it applies to information technology (Article 1).

Expressly excluded from the scope of the new Directive are existing EU protections for computer programs and databases, for broadcasting programs, usage rights in intellectual property, and the term of copyright protection (Article 1). The Directive orders the EU Member States to provide authors, performers, and producers the exclusive right to...