Deadline for EU copyright responses extended
The European Commission has extended the deadline for responding to its review of copyright rules in the EU.
Submissions will now be accepted until March 5, 2014, rather than February 5.
A Commission spokesman told WIPR that the deadline was extended in response to “requests from stakeholders who wanted to have more time to finalise and submit their responses”.
She added that 5,000 responses have been lodged so far.
On December 5, the Commission published a document asking copyright owners and other “stakeholders” 80 questions, focusing on topics such as limitations and exceptions to copyright in the digital age, and the fragmentation of the EU copyright market.
Questions include “Have you faced problems when seeking to provide online services across borders in the EU?” and “Should digital copies made by end users for private purposes in the context of a service that has been licensed by rightholders, and where the harm to the rightholder is minimal, be subject to private copying levies?”.
As the consultation was only published in December last year, ahead of the Christmas period, the decision to extend the deadline may have been based on practical considerations, said Angus McLean, managing associate at law firm Simmons & Simmons.
“Even without the Christmas period people would have needed time to consider their responses,” he added, given the “potentially very significant changes to copyright legislation across Europe” that could arise from the consultation.
The harmonisation of the EU copyright market will probably be one of the biggest issues to be discussed, McLean said.
“The market is not fully harmonised. It looks like trade secrets will be harmonised later this year so copyright is the last major IP right not to be harmonised.”
McLean, who said Simmons & Simmons has not responded to the consultation and will not unless instructed to by clients, said the number of responses so far (5,000) highlights “how significant the consultation might be”.
“It will be interesting to see what people have to say,” he added.
