| Abstract [eng] |
EU Copyright Reform: Interest Balance Search Copyright law is one of the most important factors in promoting creativity, innovation, as well as economic growth. Along with the continuous advances in technology, emerged new opportunities for authors to express themselves; also – various new types of content storage, sharing and dissemination techniques, allowing easily make all kinds of content available to users. To cater to the needs of consumers, businesses entities tend to relocate more and more of their activities to the digital platforms. Modern methods of information storage and transfering have a significant impact on copyright and related rights. Protection of legitimate interests must be guaranteed to all members of society, whether it would be right holders to copyrighted works and other protected material or the public, wishing to have access to those works. Copyright should not deny the public's right to information. In order to align the public interest with that of copyright and related rights holders‘, in certain cases the economic rights of the rights holders‘ may be subject to exceptions and limitations. The objectives set out in the current EU copyright legislation are still relevant, and current copyright exceptions along with limitations, in away, are also still useful and necessary. However, the current EU copyright law was formulated long before the entire boom of digital and online platforms. All of this raises some legal uncertainty for rights holders and the people, wishing to use their copyrighted works, as well as for the business entities who want to provide the access to those works. In this regard, the EU Commission recently presented EU copyright law reform package with several legislative proposals. The set of new provisions, provided in those draft proposals, are expected to change the current EU copyright law, in particular – to customize it to the digital age by providing more opportunities for creators, users and service providers. The paper analyzes the most recent European Commission's legislative proposals for EU copyright law. Examination of proposed regulatory changes, their problematic aspects and their potential impact on all stakeholders. |
