Shambolic JURI Committee vote on Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive - Good, Bad and Ugly

22 June 2018

 

 

On 20 June 2018, the Legal Affairs (JURI) Committee of the European Parliament voted on its long awaited amendments to the Draft Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive.

 

As a major advocate of the library and information sector, while EBLIDA welcomes the encouraging outcomes on some of the Articles, the overall result of the JURI’s deliberations is actually rather lacklustre and in places rather negative for libraries, education and research.

 

On this note, EBLIDA President, Ton van Vlimmeren, declared that “Libraries are a crucial element of the knowledge society, a truly democratic institution ensuring free, equal and legal access to information. If we want European citizens to benefit from their work, we need a copyright reform that goes beyond the report of the JURI Committee. Together with our members and partners, we will continue to lobby for a broader copyright reform.”

 

See below for a quick analysis of the text, or dowload the PDF.

 

Next Steps

The adoption of the JURI Report on 20 June was accompanied by a mandate to Rapporteur MEP Axel Voss to start trilogue negotiations on the draft Directive with the Council and Commission. This is subject to approval by the European Parliament in Plenary on 4 July, but is now likely to be challenged by a number of MEPs seeking to repeal the mandate. If that happens, the whole Parliament will have the opportunity to further amend the Report.

 

We ask that you vigorously lobby your MEPs ahead of the vote in Plenary to halt the commencement of trilogue negotiations at this stage as there is so much wanting from this legislation as well as some dangerous provisions.

 

Our colleagues from VoxScientia can provide you with the necessary tools in their call to action. We also encourage you to join the #SaveYourInternet campaign (more information available here).

 

 Background information:

For background information, please consult EBLIDA’s copyright reform webpage at http://www.eblida.org/copyright-reform.

 

 

- END of Document -

< back to overview