Restrictive copyright laws in Europe

By Thomas Vink, 3rd June 2021

Copyright is often used as a means to suppress or censor content online. The EU Information Society Directive allows for exceptions, for example in cases of parody or citation, serving to protect freedom of expression. However, as some EU Member States have transferred this directive into their national law, additional restrictions have been applied, limiting users’ rights online, including their right to share information.

Working with Defesa dos Direitos Digitais (Portugal), Homo Digitalis (Greece), Centrum Cyfrowe (Poland), and ApTI (Romania), Digital Republic are researching and then selecting the most strategic case(s) to challenge the lack of robust exceptions to copyright law enforcement.

Restrictive copyright laws in Europe

Organisation Name

Digital Republic Bulgaria, with Defesa dos Direitos Digitais, Homo Digitalis, Centrum Cyfrowe, and Association for Technology and Internation (ApTI)

 

Country/Jurisdiction

Bulgaria, Greece, Poland, Portugal and Romania

Amount Granted

EUR 44,084

Current Status

Ongoing

Grant type

Pre-Litigation Research

Description

Copyright is often used as a means to suppress or censor content online. The EU Information Society Directive allows for exceptions, for example in cases of parody or citation, serving to protect freedom of expression. However, as some EU Member States have transferred this directive into their national law, additional restrictions have been applied, limiting users’ rights online, including their right to share information.

Working with Defesa dos Direitos Digitais (Portugal), Homo Digitalis (Greece), Centrum Cyfrowe (Poland), and ApTI (Romania), Digital Republic are researching and then selecting the most strategic case(s) to challenge the lack of robust exceptions to copyright law enforcement.

Following the research, they plan to take litigation, seeking a ruling that placing further restrictions on some exceptions under the EU Information Society Directive is not permissible.

The results of the research so far have been used as one of the main sources concerning the Bulgaria national implementation of the InfoSoc Directive for the update of the copyrightexceptions.eu project.

"As some EU Member States have transferred this directive into their national law, additional restrictions have been applied, limiting users’ rights online, including their right to share information"

Strategic Goal

To ensure that copyright exceptions are not narrowed to prohibit the rights of internet users across the EU to freedom of expression and access to information.

Organisation Name

Women’s Link Worldwide

Image credit: Umberto on Unsplash