Europe directs on digital

Two important Directives for European Union creators have recently been adopted.

The Directive adapting copyright to the digital environment received ministerial approval in April.

This introduces new rights for creators making their work available on the internet, but harmonisation across the European Union has been compromised by the option to include certain exceptions in national laws (covering users such as schools, libraries and private individuals).

It remains to be seen which of these will be taken up by the British government, which has 18 months to amend the 1988 copyright Act to conform to the Directive.

The Directive giving artists a right to benefit from the re-sale of their original artworks was finally approved, despite strong opposition from the British government, in June.

The formal conciliation procedure was necessary to produce a compromise between the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers. This included relatively high base level (£1800) for payment of the royalty and a ceiling (£7500) for the royalty on any one sale.

The Government has four years to introduce the right for living artists in Britain, with a possible extra six years to apply it to the heirs of dead artists whose works are still in copyright.

BECTU will closely monitor the way in which the government brings British law into line with these two important Directives.