Is There Still a Policy Agenda for EU Copyright Law?

Abstract

Almost two decades after the last landmark act of EU copyright harmonization (InfoSoc Directive, 2001/29/EC), and after a number of narrow, targeted interventions on specific topics, the EU legislator has issued another historical directive touching key pillars of copyright law (2019/790/EU, CDSMD). It is still too early to evaluate the impact this act will have on the digital single market of protected works and the balance between conflicting interests at stake. However, commentators have already highlighted its strengths and flaws, underlined challenges and problems still affecting the system, and advanced specific reform proposals and, more generally, EU copyright law that have still remained unaddressed. This revived debate, also triggered by the interplay between EU copyright and the new regulatory interventions on platform regulation and the data economy, stand in stark contrast with the disappearance of copyright from the Union’s legislative agenda, which will likely be the case for some years to come. Building on the current state of the harmonization in the field, this Opinion maintains that a pressing EU copyright policy agenda still exists, and proposes a number of recommendations for future regulatory actions.