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.
Council Directive 93/98/EEC of 29 October 1993 harmonising the term of protection of copyright and certain related rights is a European Union directive in the field of EU copyright law, made under the internal market provisions of the Treaty of Rome. It was replaced by the 2006 Copyright Term Directive (2006/116/EC).
Anti-circumvention refers to laws which prohibit the circumvention of technological barriers for using a digital good in certain ways which the rightsholders do not wish to allow. The requirement for anti-circumvention laws was globalized in 1996 with the creation of the World Intellectual Property Organization's Copyright Treaty.
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Publication right is a type of copyright granted to the publisher who first publishes a previously unpublished work after that work's original copyright has expired.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.
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.
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.
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 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.
Directive 2011/77/EU on the term of protection of copyright and certain related rights amended Directive 2006/116/EC and extended copyright terms of recordings from 50 to 70 years. It was passed by the Council of the European Union on 12 September 2011 after the European Parliament passed it on 23 April 2009 establishing a term of 70 years, lower than the 95 years the European Commission had proposed on 16 July 2008.
A collective work is a work that contains the works of several authors assembled and published under the direction of one natural or legal person who owns the copyright in the work as a whole. Definitions vary considerably from one country to another, but usually treat ownership of the work as a whole as distinct from ownership of the individual contributions, so the individual authors may retain the right to publish their work elsewhere. It is common for publication of articles on the Internet, when isolated from the context of the overall work, to be considered to be outside of the standard agreement between the author and the owner of the collective work.
When a work's copyright expires, it enters the public domain. The following is a list of works that entered the public domain in 2018. Since laws vary globally, the copyright status of some works are not uniform.
When a work's copyright expires, it enters the public domain. The following is a list of works that entered the public domain in 2011. Since laws vary globally, the copyright status of some works are not uniform.
When a work's copyright expires, it enters the public domain. The following is a list of works that entered the public domain in 2010. Since laws vary globally, the copyright status of some works are not uniform.
When a work's copyright expires, it enters the public domain. The following is a list of works that entered the public domain in 2009. Since laws vary globally, the copyright status of some works are not uniform.
When a work's copyright expires, it enters the public domain. The following is a list of works that entered the public domain in 2008. Since laws vary globally, the copyright status of some works are not uniform.
When a work's copyright expires, it enters the public domain. The following is a list of works that entered the public domain in 2007. Since laws vary globally, the copyright status of some works are not uniform.
