This article from Paid Content describes upcoming EU policy initiatives for digital content:
The project’s primary pillar is creating a “single digital market” to boost entertainment download and streaming services across borders, including by simplifying content licensing and harmonising online payments access.
Towards that end, upcoming initiatives include:
- Legislation to simplify cross-border content licensing;
- “Restart[ing] a dialogue among industry stakeholders on copyright levies”;
- Revision of the Directive on enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPRED) to address online piracy; and
- Developing “an action plan to boost e-commerce, including by making online payments affordable and secure across borders.”
The article indicates many of these items have already been detailed by Professor Ian Hargreaves’ Review Of Intellectual Property And Growth, and the UK government has already promised implement his recommendations “in order to simplify IP law for the digital and to make economic stimulus.”
Recommended measures include creating a Digital Copyright Exchange, enabling automatic licensing of orphan works, decriminalising format-shifting and backing the EC’s cross-border licensing drive.
