Intellectual property scholars often argue that a European Copyright Code is
unnecessary, undesirable, and perhaps impossible. It is certainly true that
drafting rules for the European copyright law of the future is a sensitive and
risky task. However, the intersection between the present and the future, the
delicate point where it is felt that one era is fading away and a new dawn is
breaking, has arrived for European copyright law; and moreover, the Lisbon
Treaty has provided an explicit legal basis for an EU copyright policy. At
this moment, all views, interests, concerns, and expectations should be
weighed in order to establish the next step forward from this critical stage.
Such a wide-ranging evaluation was the objective of an international
conference held in Nicosia, Cyprus, in April 2011. This book reprints the
papers presented at that conference, touching on such issues as the following:
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rules of copyright ownership and allocation of rights;
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copyright exceptions and limitations;
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copyright as a public interest question;
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claims of culture and human rights;
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economic rights of the author;
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enforcement of copyright;
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EU harmonization of copyright;
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media as tangible objects;
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the duration of copyright;
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the notion of the “public”;
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the role of fundamental rights;
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employment relationships, commission contracts, and collective works;
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the concept of “fair use”.
Several authors offer insightful comments on the ways in which the Wittem
Group’s draft European Copyright Code propounds some of these issues.
Recognizing that the existing steps towards harmonized copyright protection in
Europe have gone little farther than a patchwork of eight directives and a set
of case law interpretation rules, the authors take important steps towards
decrypting the gaps and inconsistencies in the existing common legal
framework. In their reexamination of the sources and justifications of
copyright law and its crucial role in balancing the right to information with
requirements of data protection and privacy, they have created in this book an
in-depth resource for forward-looking policymakers, academics, and
practitioners in the field of copyright law throughout the European Union.
Part 1: The Methods of European Copyright Harmonization. 1. The
Legal Foundations of European Copyright Law;
T. Georgopoulos.
2.
The European Legislator’s Strategy in the Field of Copyright Harmonization;
F. Gotzen. 3. The Plurality of Legal Systems in Copyright Law: An
Obstacle to a European Codification?
P. Jougleux .
4. CJUE
Policy and Practice in the Field of European Copyright Law;
D. Kallinikou
.
Part 2: The acquis of European Copyright Harmonization. 1. The
Foundations of the Concept of Work in European Copyright Law;
T.-E.
Synodinou. 2. The acquis communautaire in the Area of Copyright and
Related Rights: Economic Rights;
A. Lucas-Schloetter.
3.
Defining the Scope of Protection of Copyright in the EU: The Need to
Reconsider the acquis Regarding Limitations and Exceptions;
C. Geiger, F.
Schönherr. 4. Duration of Copyright and Related Rights;
H.
Pisuke.
5. Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights;
P.
Cámara Águila.
Part 3: The Gaps in European Copyright
Harmonization.
1. Authorship and Ownership: Authors, Entrepreneurs
and Rights;
A. Quaedvlieg.
2. Moral right;
I. Kikkis.
3
. Copyright Contracts;
S. von Lewinski.
4. An Essential Brick in
the European Copyright Building: A Regulation of Copyright Transactions;
J.
de Werra.
5. The Legal Struggle in the EU against Online Piracy;
I. Iglezakis. 6. Interoperability and European Copyright Law
Codification;
C. Bernault.
Part 4: Perspectives and Reflections on
the European Codification of Copyright Law.
1. The Perspective of
the Introduction of a European Fair Use Clause;
P.L.C. Torremans.
2
. The Wittem Group’s European Copyright Code;
P.B. Hugenholtz.
3. Reflections on a European Copyright Codification;
R. Hilty.
4
. European Copyright Codification;
A. Lucas.
