Why Cherry-Picking Never Leads to Harmonisation: The Case of the Limitations on Copyright under Directive 2001/29/EC

AuthorLucie Guibault
PositionPh. D., LL. M. (Montreal), Senior researcher at the Institute for Information Law, University of Amsterdam
Pages55-66
Why Cherry-Picking Never Leads to Harmonisation
2010
55
1
Abstract: The article examines whether the
norms laid down in the Directive in relation to the
exceptions and limitations on copyright and related
rights can be conducive to a sensible degree of har-
monisation across the European Union. Before dis-
cussing the degree of harmonisation achieved so far
by the Directive, the first part gives a short overview
of the main characteristics of the list of exceptions
and limitations contained in Article 5 of the Direc-
tive. A comprehensive review of the implementation
of each limitation by the Member States is beyond
the scope of this article. The following section takes a
closer look at three examples of limitations that have
led to legislative changes at the Member State level
as express measures towards the implementation of
the Information Society Directive, that is, the limita-
tions for the benefit of libraries, for teaching and re-
search, and for persons with a disability. These ex-
ceptions and limitations were later on also identified
by the European Commission as key elements in the
deployment of a digital knowledge economy. The
analysis will show that the implementation of the
provisions on limitations in the Information Society
Directive did not, and probably cannot, yield the ex-
pected level of harmonisation across the European
Union and that, as a consequence, there still exists a
significant degree of uncertainty for the stakeholders
regarding the extent of permissible acts with respect
to copyright protected works.
Why Cherry-Picking Never
Leads to Harmonisation
The Case of the Limitations on Copyright
under Directive 2001/29/EC
by Lucie Guibault, Amsterdam
Ph. D., LL. M. (Montreal), Senior researcher at the Institute for Information Law, University of Amsterdam.*
© 2010 Lucie Guibault
Everbody may disseminate this article by electronic means and make it available for download under the terms and
conditions of the Digit al Peer Publishing Licence (DPPL). A copy of the license tex t may be obtained at http://nbn-resolving.
de/urn:nbn:de:00 09-dppl-v3-en8 .
This article may also b e used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License, available at ht tp://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/.
Recommended citat ion: Lucie Guibault, Why Cherry-Picking Never Leads to Harmonisation: The Case of the Limitations on
Copyright under Direct ive 2001/29/EC, 1 (2010) JIPITEC 55, para. 1.
Keywords: Copyright, Exceptions, Limitations, Three-Step Test, Information Society Directive, Harmonisation
A. Introduction1
1 


   
   
    

   
   
 
  


 








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