22 September 2010

Mot du Jour: Pan-european Copyright Laws

The European Parliament has today endorsed the report produced by Marielle Gallo ('the Gallo Report'), a French MEP, on the enforcement of intellectual property rights ('IPR') in the internal market. It has recommended the creation of a pan-European copyright law which would tackle the issue of lack of harmonisation of copyright laws across Member States.

The Gallo Report has criticised the Commission for not assessing how the European legal framework could be strengthened in relation to cyberspace. It has asked the Commission to review the impact of the 2004 Directive on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights.

calls on the Commission to conduct "an assessment of the ways to strengthen and upgrade the legal framework with respect to the Internet".

The report, by Marielle Gallo, asks the Commission to review the impact of 2004's Directive on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights, and to propose amendments to it which would strengthen EU powers to tackle infringement. It has also highlighted the need to review the impact on the legal frameworks of Member States on reducing instances of infringement. This will be in line with the current negotiation of the Commission of the Anti Counterfeit Trade Agreement.

The Parliament is pioneered the creation of better legitimate online content markets to tackle the growing instances of online infringement. Thus the Commission will have to propose strategies (including legal and technological ones) to create such a market.

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