European directive on copyright
| European Union directive | |
| Title | Directive on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society |
|---|---|
| Made by | European Parliament & Council |
| Made under | Arts. 47(2), 55 & 95 |
| Journal reference | L167, 2001-06-22, p. 10 L6, 2002-01-10, p. 70 |
| History | |
| Date made | 2001-05-22 |
| Came into force | 2001-06-22 |
| Implementation date | 2002-12-22 |
| Preparative texts | |
| Commission proposal | C108, 1998-04-07, p. 6 C180, 1999-06-25, p. 6 |
| EESC opinion | C407, 1998-12-28, p. 30 |
| EP opinion | C150, 1999-05-28, p. 171 |
| Other legislation | |
| Amends | 92/100/EEC, 93/98/EEC |
| Current legislation | |
The Copyright Directive (officially the Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society, also known as the Information Society Directive or the InfoSoc Directive), is a directive of the European Union enacted to implement the WIPO Copyright Treaty and to harmonise aspects of copyright law across Europe, such as copyright exceptions. The directive was enacted under the internal market provisions of the Treaty of Rome.
The directive was subject to unprecedented lobbying and has been cited as a success for copyright industries. The directive gives EU Member States significant freedom in certain aspects of transposition. Member States had until 22 December 2002 to implement the directive into their national laws. However, only Greece and Denmark met the deadline and the European Commission eventually initiated enforcement action against six Member States for non-implementation.
Articles 2–4 contain definitions of the exclusive rights granted to under copyright and related rights. They distinguish the "reproduction right" (Article 2) from the right of "communication to the public" or "making available to the public" (Article 3): the latter is specifically intended to cover publication and transmission on the internet. The two names for the right derive from the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (Arts. 8 & 10 respectively). The related right for authors to authorise or prohibit any form of distribution to the public by sale or otherwise is provided for in Article 4 (exhaustion rights).
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