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Poland is the only one among the six countries sued at the Court of Justice of the European Union by the European Commission for not implementing new EU copyright laws, including royalties for authors from online platforms.
The case concerns two EU copyright directives, namely the new directive on copyright and related rights in the digital single market and the directive on copyright in certain online transmissions.
The first one regulated, among other things, the relationships between copyright holders and online platforms. This includes issues such as compensation for artists, creators, press publishers, and journalists whose works are used on the internet. The second, concerning the online transmission and retransmission of TV and radio programs, made it easier for broadcasters to offer some programs online abroad. Both were intended to modernize the already outdated EU regulations in this area to the benefit of creators and audiences.
The member states had until June 2021 to integrate the directives’ provisions into their national law. When some of them did not do this, the EC intervened, initially calling on countries to remedy the deficiencies, and in February 2023, filed 11 lawsuits against a total of six member states: against Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Latvia, Poland, and Portugal concerning the lack of implementation of the first directive, and against Bulgaria, Finland, Latvia, Poland, and Portugal for not reporting the full transposition of the second directive.
On Tuesday, the Polish government adopted a draft amendment to the Copyright and Related Rights Law, which implements these two directives.
The other countries sued by the Commission at the CJEU had already implemented the regulations last year. The Finnish Parliament adopted them at the end of February 2023 and implemented them at the beginning of April that year, as did Latvia. Denmark – conducted consultations in March and introduced them into force from 1 July of the previous year. Bulgaria implemented the provisions of both EU directives at the end of 2023, and Portugal completed the implementation of the regulations in June 2023.
For example, in Latvia, to ensure a fair remuneration for creators, a transparency obligation was introduced. Among other things, it obligates platforms to provide the creator with current and comprehensive information about the use of his work at least once a year, including the way it is utilized, the revenues obtained, and the compensation. The changes also include a creator’s rights in the event of disputes. Specifically, a creator has the right to demand additional compensation from the copyright owner if, for example, the initially agreed compensation proves to be too low compared to the revenue generated from using the work; the creator will also be able to demand a contract change to establish fair compensation and to be paid the difference in compensation.
In Finland, the EU regulations primarily added new exceptions to the Finnish Copyright Act. In Finland, creators generally have the exclusive right to decide whether their copyrighted works may be reproduced or made available to the public. One of the new exceptions allows users to reproduce copies of works or parts of them, for example, for scientific purposes, provided they have legal access to the work and, provided the copyright owner has not expressly reserved this right. Utilization of copyrighted works is also permitted for the purpose of parody, caricature, and pastiche. Even before the adoption of the EU rules, parody was recognized as permissible in Finland, provided that it constituted an original work; now, parody no longer needs to meet the requirement of originality.
(May 14, 2024)