A new report from the Open Society Institute makes a number of recommendations for the future of European copyright law, aimed at making sure that user's rights are harmonized across the continent.
Right now, every nation in the Union has to set out the same minimum rights for copyright holders, but the rights they give to the public can vary from country to country. So a legal parody in one country might be a criminal infringement across the border.
Most interesting is the report's work on DRM. Under Europe's copyright directive, every EU nation has to pass laws that stop people from breaking DRM, but it also requires the states to hold DRM vendors to account when their crippleware infringes on legitimate consumer rights.
The report focuses on "digital copyright" issues and suggests principles
aimed at establishing best practices with regard to user autonomy and
peer collaboration, diversity, and political and cultural participation.
The study includes specific recommendations in controversial areas such
as DRM anti-circumvention frameworks, private copying exceptions,
teaching exceptions, exceptions for disabled people, exceptions for
archives and libraries, as well as recommendations on issues such as
reporting on current events, the quotation right, and provisions on
caricature and parody, among others.
(Thanks, Manon!)
