The desirability of unification of European copyright law

Abstract

This chapter critically examines the question of unification of European copyright law. Seen in the past as a utopian goal, the idea of unification of copyright laws in the EU has gradually gained significant ground. As it will be shown, both the economic and the cultural dimension of copyright law militate strongly in favor of European Union (EU) copyright unification. The real question is therefore not whether EU copyright law unification is necessary, but when is the best time to do it. Contrary to the EU Commission’s hesitations and to the view that European copyright law unification is part of a long-term agenda, there are various reasons justifying the introduction of a mandatory European unified copyright law at an earlier stage. First of all, the road toward the unification of copyright law has been already been marked out by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which has emerged as a major player in this field. Second, the tremendous challenges posed by the online dissemination, use and protection of copyright-protected works have shown the inherent limitations and weaknesses of national copyright-law policies on digital copyright law. It therefore appears that genuinely enforceable copyright law policies can be adopted only at the EU level through unified rules.