Duration of protection
The principal goal was to ensure that there was a single duration for copyright and related rights across the entire European Union. The chosen term for a work was 70 years from the death of the author (post mortem auctoris, pma) for authors' rights regardless of when the work was first lawfully published (Art. 1), longer than the 50-year post mortem auctoris term required by the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (Art. 7.1 Berne Convention). In the case that the author is anonymous or pseudonymous the term for a work is 70 years from the date of first lawful publication. The directive notes that the original goal of the Berne Convention was to protect works for two generations after the death of the author, and that fifty years was no longer sufficient for this purpose (para. 5 of the preamble). It is often stated that 70 years pma was the longest copyright term of any Member State at the time: this is not strictly correct, [3] and is not quoted as the reason for the choice in the directive. Where a Member State protected a work for a longer period at the time the directive came into force, the copyright term is not reduced [Art. 10(1)], but other Member States will not respect the longer period.
The duration of protection of related rights (those of performers, phonogram and film producers and broadcasting organisations) was set at fifty years with the following rules for calculating the starting date (Art. 3). This fifty-year period was in reflexion of the negotiating position of the European Community at the negotiations which led to the Marrakech Agreements, including the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).
| Rightholders | Commencement |
|---|
| Performers | the date of the performance, unless a fixation of the performance is lawfully published or lawfully communicated to the public within this period, in which case the date of the first such publication or the first such communication to the public, whichever is the earlier. |
| Phonogram producers | the date the fixation is made, unless the phonogram is lawfully published or lawfully communicated to the public during this period, in which case the date of the first such publication or the first such communication to the public, whichever is the earlier. [4] |
| Film producers | the date the fixation is made, unless the film is lawfully published or lawfully communicated to the public during this period, in which case the date of the first such publication or the first such communication to the public, whichever is the earlier. |
| Broadcasting organisations | the first transmission of a broadcast, whether this broadcast is transmitted by wire or over the air, including by cable or satellite. |
Copyright restoration
The new copyright terms applied also to works which were already in existence when it came into force, as was held by the European Court of Justice in the Butterfly case, [5] even if they had previously entered the public domain. Strictly, they applied to works which were protected in at least one Member State on 1 July 1995, although most Member States chose to apply them to all works which would qualify on the basis of the protection terms, regardless of protection elsewhere: this approach is much simpler for national courts to apply, as they do not have to consider foreign laws.
The effect of the approach was shown by the judgment of the European Court of Justice in the Puccini case, [6] which covered facts arising before the directive entered force. The State of Hesse in Germany had staged the opera La Bohème by Puccini during the 1993/94 season at the Hessische Staatstheater Wiesbaden without the permission of the copyright holder. The opera was first published in Italy and Puccini died on 29 November 1924. At the time, Italy applied a copyright period of 56 years pma, so Italian protection had expired at the end of 1980: Germany, however, applied a 70 years pma period to works of German authors and the "rule of the shorter term" (Art. 7.8 Berne Convention) to foreign works. The Court ruled that the application of the rule of the shorter term between Member States was a breach of the principle of non-discrimination enshrined in Article 12 of the Treaty instituting the European Community: hence the work should have been protected in Germany even if it was no longer protected in Italy. [7] Such cases should no longer arise with the implementation of the directive.
Films and photographs
The directive also harmonises the copyright treatment of films ("cinematographic and other audiovisual works") and photographs throughout the European Union. Films are protected for 70 years from the death of the last of the following people to die [Art. 2(2)]: the principal director, the author of the screenplay, the author of the dialogue and the composer of music specifically created for use in the cinematographic or audiovisual work. This applies regardless of the provisions of national law regarding the authorship of the film, ensuring a common duration of copyright between Member States. The principal director of the film is always considered as an author of the film, although national legislations may provide for other co-authors [Art. 2(1)].
Before the directive, different Member States had applied widely different criteria of originality and creativity to the copyright protection of photographs. These were harmonised by article 6, which states that the only permissible criterion for full protection (70 years pma) is that the photograph is "original in the sense that [it is] the author's own intellectual creation". Member States may protect photographs which do not meet this criterion by sui generis related rights.
The World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty is an international treaty on copyright law adopted by the member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in 1996. It provides additional protections for copyright to respond to advances in information technology since the formation of previous copyright treaties before it. As of August 2023, the treaty has 115 contracting parties. The WCT and WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty, are together termed WIPO "internet treaties".
The copyright law of the European Union is the copyright law applicable within the European Union. Copyright law is largely harmonized in the Union, although country to country differences exist. The body of law was implemented in the EU through a number of directives, which the member states need to enact into their national law. The main copyright directives are the Copyright Term Directive, the Information Society Directive and the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market. Copyright in the Union is furthermore dependent on international conventions to which the European Union or their member states are part of, such as TRIPS Agreement or the Berne Convention.
Copyright in the Netherlands is governed by the Dutch Copyright Law, copyright is the exclusive right of the author of a work of literature or artistic work to publish and copy such work.
The Directive 96/9/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 1996 on the legal protection of databases is a directive of the European Union in the field of copyright law, made under the internal market provisions of the Treaty of Rome. It harmonises the treatment of databases under copyright law and the sui generis right for the creators of databases which do not qualify for copyright.
Publication right is a type of copyright granted to the publisher who first publishes a previously unpublished work after that work's original copyright has expired. It is in almost all respects the same as standard copyright, but excludes moral rights. Publication right is mainly found in the law of European countries and has no direct correspondence in US copyright law. Within the European Union, not all countries originally had such a right, and where it was provided terms varied, but in 1993 national laws were required to be harmonized by EU Directive 93/98/EEC to provide standard period of protection of 25 years from first publication.
Copyright law of Ireland is applicable to most typical copyright situations. In most cases, copyright protection expires 70 years after the death of the author/creator. Irish law includes a provision for "fair dealing," similar to that used by other countries.
Spanish copyright law, or authors' right law, governs intellectual property rights that authors have over their original literary, artistic or scientific works in Spain. It was first instituted by the Law of 10 January 1879, and, in its origins, was influenced by French authors' right law and by the movement led by Victor Hugo for the international protection of literary and artistic works. As of 2006, the principal dispositions are contained in Book One of the Intellectual Property Law of 11 November 1987 as modified. A consolidated version of this law was approved by Royal Legislative Decree 1/1996 of 12 April 1996: unless otherwise stated, all references are to this law.
"Author's rights" is a term frequently used in connection with laws about intellectual property.
In copyright law, related rights are the rights of a creative work not connected with the work's actual author. It is used in opposition to the term "authors' rights". Neighbouring rights is a more literal translation of the original French droits voisins. Both authors' rights and related rights are copyrights in the sense of English or U.S. law.
The European Union Computer Programs Directive controls the legal protection of computer programs under the copyright law of the European Union. It was issued under the internal market provisions of the Treaty of Rome. The most recent version is Directive 2009/24/EC.
Directive 92/100/EEC is a European Union directive in the field of copyright law, made under the internal market provisions of the Treaty of Rome. It creates a "rental and lending right" as a part of copyright protection, and sets out minimum standards of protection for the related rights of performers, phonogram and film producers and broadcasting organizations.
The Satellite and Cable Directive, formally the Council Directive 93/83/EEC of 27 September 1993 on the coordination of certain rules concerning copyright and rights related to copyright applicable to satellite broadcasting and cable retransmission, is a European Union directive that governs the application of copyright and related rights to satellite and cable television in the European Union. It was made under the internal market provisions of the Treaty of Rome.
Directive 2001/84/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 September 2001 on the resale right for the benefit of the author of an original work of art is a European Union directive in the field of copyright law, made under the internal market provisions of the Treaty of Rome. It creates a right under European Union law for artists to receive royalties on their works when they are resold. This right, often known by its French name droit de suite, appears in the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and already existed in many, but not all, Member States. As a result, there was a tendency for sellers of works of art to sell them in countries without droit de suite provisions to avoid paying the royalty. This was deemed to be a distortion of the internal market, leading to the Directive.
The rule of the shorter term, also called the comparison of terms, is a provision in international copyright treaties. The provision allows that signatory countries can limit the duration of copyright they grant to foreign works under national treatment to no more than the copyright term granted in the country of origin of the work.
The Copyright Term Directive2006/116/EC is a consolidated version of the former EU Directive harmonising the term of copyright protection, including all amendments made up to and including 2006. It replaces the text of the older directive.
The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, usually known as the Berne Convention, was an international assembly held in 1886 in the Swiss city of Bern by ten European countries with the goal of agreeing on a set of legal principles for the protection of original work. They drafted and adopted a multi-party contract containing agreements for a uniform, border-crossing system that became known under the same name. Its rules have been updated many times since then. The treaty provides authors, musicians, poets, painters, and other creators with the means to control how their works are used, by whom, and on what terms. In some jurisdictions these type of rights are referred to as copyright; on the European continent they are generally referred to as author' rights or makerright.
The Copyright and Information Society Directive 2001 is a directive in European Union law that was enacted to implement the WIPO Copyright Treaty and to harmonise aspects of copyright law across Europe, such as copyright exceptions. The directive was first enacted in 2001 under the internal market provisions of the Treaty of Rome.
Under the law of the United Kingdom, a copyright is an intangible property right subsisting in certain qualifying subject matter. Copyright law is governed by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended from time to time. As a result of increasing legal integration and harmonisation throughout the European Union a complete picture of the law can only be acquired through recourse to EU jurisprudence, although this is likely to change by the expiration of the Brexit transition period on 31 December 2020, the UK has left the EU on 31 January 2020. On 12 September 2018, the European Parliament approved new copyright rules to help secure the rights of writers and musicians.
