EU Internal Market IP Agenda for 2010/11

Hot off the press at Europolitics today, is a report on Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier's agenda for IP initiatives. In speaking to the Euro Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee on Monday 22nd, Barnier identified initiatives on patents, trademarks, and internet piracy.

As far as copyright is concerned he outlined two legislative proposals that will impact authors - one on orphan works and the other on collective management of authors' rights.

Reflecting that "approximately 40% of library collections are "orphans".........Barnier indicated.....that he agreed with the principle of mutual recognition between national systems advocated by the JURI committee and mentioned a proposal by the end of 2010."

As far as collective management is concerned, the very dishy Barnier (no apologies for betraying personal taste here) is supportive of a directive that would "facilitate the obtaining of cross-border licences and encourage development of the 'lawful offering' in the EU at a competitive price" and it appears he may either propose a green paper followed by a directive in 2011, "or a directive as of this year". Handsome and supportive of the administrative convenience, pro-author and consumer-friendly business model of collective administration. Swoon.............this man has everything!

Have you seen IRIS yet?

Francisco Javier Cabrera Blázquez (Analyst, Legal Information at the European Audiovisual Observatory) writes:

"I am the deputy editor of IRIS, a free legal newsletter published by the European Audiovisual Observatory. The newsletter reports on matters relevant to the audiovisual industry (including, among other things, copyright law). I was thinking that readers of this blog might be interested in it. You can see it here.

Here is some information about the newsletter: IRIS – Legal Observations of the European Audiovisual Observatory reports monthly on the most important legal developments for the audiovisual industry in 36 European countries. In more than 30 short articles, it provides a regular, free overview of what has been happening at national and international level in relation to legislation or court decisions in fields such as broadcasting, cinema, video-on-demand services and IPTV.

IRIS regularly covers themes such as developments in the television, on-demand service and film sectors, as well as closely related events in the communications sector. Expressed in terms of traditional categories of law, the e-newsletter reports on the latest developments in the fields of competition, copyright, data protection, criminal and tax law, for example, insofar as they are particularly relevant to the audiovisual sector. As far as law-related policy developments are concerned, IRIS also contains articles on freedom of information, media concentration, media pluralism, youth protection, self- and co-regulation, etc.

I hope you will find it interesting".

Thanks, Francisco, for letting us know!