The coalition condemned the failure of the draft Copyright Directive to harmonise the European market. They expressed their disappointment following recent political agreement on the Directive struck by EU ambassadors in Brussels.
The Coalition say they want a Directive that gives strong protection to creative work in the digital environment and argue that the current text fails to provide an adequate legal framework.
The draft Directive contains over 20 exceptions to copyright law, which the Coalition regards as excessive. It also attacks parts of the text which it says provides no payment to the holders of copyright in some cases which is damaging to their interests.
Under the current text, each Member State can apply not only its own list of exceptions, but extend this to many other exceptions included in the new Copyright Directive. This, says the Coalition in a statement, would weaken the level of protection that already exists in a majority of EU countries.
The Coalition said in its statement:
“It is essential that the creative community have the ability to use technical measures, such as encryption, to protect work distributed to consumers via the Internet. But the draft Directive allows EU Member States to intervene arbitrarily and ask rightholders to modify their technical measures to allow for widely varying amounts of private copying in different countries.
"This could result in the partitioning of the Internal Market by mandating different technologies in each of the 15 Member States, according to the national view of how much private copying should be allowed.”
The Coalition is are now calling on MEPs to make the necessary changes to the Directive during its second reading at the European Parliament later this year. It said: “If changes are not made, this legislation could hold back the creative community in their efforts to develop new ways for consumers to enjoy European culture via the Internet.”