EPC challenges Germany’s draft transposition of rules for content sharing platforms in Article 17

On Monday 30 November, EPC co-signed the letter on the German draft law transposition of Article 17 of the Digital Single Market (DSM) Copyright Directive together with rightholders from the European creative sector.

The letter was addressed to the Members of the German Government, including: Mr Peter Altmeier, Minister of Economic Affairs and Energy; Ms Christine Lambrecht, Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection; Mr Horst Seehofer, Minister of Interior; Mr Helge Braun, Head of Chancellery; and Ms Monika Grütters, Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media.

The current draft law presents increasingly worrisome rules that pose a risk for the existing balance between copyright and fundamental rights that have the potential to cause serious harm to the creative sector in Germany and beyond.

Angela Mills Wade, Executive Director of the EPC commented that “Contrary to the objectives of the directive, the draft rules would actually facilitate copyright infringement as well as undermine legitimate licensing by allowing unrealistic exceptions for 20 seconds or video or 1000 characters of text. Many video clips are even less than 20 seconds and certainly 1,000 characters could comprise half of a press article, thereby undermining article 15 of the directive, granting press publishers a neighbouring right”.

You may find the letter in its entirety below.