27 March 2019

26 March 2019 could be seen as a momentous day in the music industry as it is the day that saw MEP’s vote on the highly controversial and anticipated Copyright Directive. This hotly contested piece of legislation has gone through several draft versions and has had significant input from the music industry and indeed the cultural sector as a whole.

The underlying principle behind the Directive is to strike a fair and equitable balance between the profits made by internet platforms and the creatives whose content they make accessible to their users and to shorten the “value gap” between the two.

One of the most contentious areas of the Directive was Article 13 – now re-named Article 17 in the revised text - with some of its many opponents claiming that it “threatens the internet”.  The music industry, however, pushed back on this claim and have convinced MEP’s that content providers must take responsibility for the copyrighted material that they provide by ensuring that they have secure licences for any copyrighted material uploaded by their users or subscribers. Alongside this, these platforms must also ensure that they have the appropriate upload filters imbedded within their platforms to be able to identify any copyrighted material. Platforms such as YouTube, Spotify et al will undoubtedly be able to implement these measures as they have the resources to do so, but not so, say the protestors, start-ups or SME’s and this much needed change in the law may have a severe impact upon smaller providers.

Before creatives start celebrating, however, it should be noted that before the Directive can be enshrined into law, it first needs final approval by the European Council. This final approval is set for 9 April 2019 and whilst there is the feeling that this will go ahead, there are still those that believe the Directive, and in particular Article 17, violates the fundamental rights as set out in the EU Charter.

Arguably, whatever the final outcome, it is important that the law on copyright and the rights afforded to copyright owners has been brought to the fore as there is no denying from either side that the law as it stands does not go nearly far enough.

Further Reading: EU Copyright Directive – Is this the answer or will it leave creatives worse off?

Paul Motion, Partner: prm@bto.co.uk / 0131 222 2932