The European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, intends to propose new copyright legislation in the wake of last year’s ruling by the European Court of Justice in the English Premier League’s case against publican Karen Murphy.
The EUObserver website reported that the commission informed government ministers and the European Parliament on Wednesday that the implications of the ruling, as well as the existing copyright law, need to be reviewed early this year.
“It should be possible for the collective management of copyright to become more European structured, thereby facilitating the issues of licences covering a number of regions,” the commission said. “European citizens who have moved to another member state should be able to continue to watch their favourite programmes.”
The commission’s plans are part of a wider move toward the collective management of copyright in the EU, and its pursuit of a ‘digital single market’.
Internet content rights are likely to come within the scope of the Commission’s plans – the ECJ case focused on satellite television rights only. The commission has said internet regulation in Europe “is still a patchwork of different laws, rules, standards and practices, often with little or no interoperability.”