Six EU states threatened over failure to adopt orphan works law
The European Commission has threatened six EU member states with possible financial sanctions if they fail to notify it within the next two months about measures taken to amend national laws governing orphan works.
Belgium, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania and Slovenia were hit with the threat yesterday (May 28) following their failure to enact an EU directive that allows public institutions to exploit orphan works.
Orphan works are defined under EU law as those where the owner of the original copyright cannot be located.
The European Parliament adopted EU directive 2012/28/EC in 2012, which requires each member state to amend its national law so that libraries, museums and universities can reproduce orphan works free from copyright restrictions.
The directive required each member state to amend its law by October 2014.
But the failure of the six nations to amend their laws has led the commission to take action. It has requested the member states inform the commission about measures they are taking to amend their laws within two months of this request.
Failure to do so may mean financial sanctions or the countries being referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union for legal action.
On the same day, the commission confirmed it has ended its dispute with Austria, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Latvia, because they have demonstrated measures taken to adopt the directive.
