Zuleeg, Fabian and Bruguière, Jean-Michel and Tasheva, Iva and Dumont, Frédéric (2017) Rewarding quality journalism or distorting the Digital Single Market? The case for and against neighbouring rights for press publishers. EPC Discussion Paper, 29 May 2017. [Discussion Paper]
Abstract
Last September, the European Commission introduced 'neighbouring rights' for press publishers at EU level as part of its proposal for a new Copyright Directive1 . These new rights are similar to the ancillary copyright for press publishers already introduced in Germany and Spain. Neighbouring rights give publishers additional protection, entitling them to receive remuneration in the form of royalties from online services (such as search engines and news aggregators) that, for example, display snippets of news in search results. New neighbouring rights at EU level may provide additional revenue for publishers, but raise many concerns. What would the implications be for other economic actors, such as creators, small publishers, online services and users? What is the added value of the new rights over existing copyright frameworks? How can the balance best be struck between the various stakeholders' interests? How to ensure that copyright exceptions are invoked given the significant disparities between member states' provisions? While copyright is an important tool to encourage investment in the creative industries, strong evidence of a market failure is required to justify the introduction of a new right or related right provision. An ill-designed copyright reform would fail to deliver important objectives such as an efficient value chain and a functioning Single Market. It could also have a negative impact on society as a whole by limiting access to information, undermining media plurality and hampering innovation.
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