Following the deal reached between the European Parliament and the Council on the language of the proposed Copyright Directive — including Article 11, which would create a Publishers’ Right in the European Union — the Council approved the final version on February 20. Following the Council’s vote, the Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee approved the deal on February 26. The compromise version of Article 11 sticks closer to the Council’s proposal, with “individual words and short extracts” falling outside the scope of protection. However, the negotiators inserted a sentence ensuring that the exclusion of short extracts is not interpreted to weaken the effectiveness of the Publishers’ Right. Following the votes in the Council and the Legal Affairs Committee, the Directive must now be approved by the full Parliament. The Parliament is expected to vote on the measure during its session from March 25–28. The Alliance will work with our European partners to help ensure the passage of the Directive. Read the Legal Affairs Committee’s press release on the Directive here
Members of the News/Media Alliance staff have contributed to this post.
