Diritto d'autore 2019/0790 EN

Member States shall ensure that parties facing difficulties related to the licensing of rights when seeking to conclude an agreement for the purpose of making available audiovisual works on video-on-demand services may rely on the assistance of an impartial body or of mediators. The impartial body established or designated by a Member State for the purpose of this Article and mediators shall provide assistance to the parties with their negotiations and help the parties reach agreements, including, where appropriate, by submitting proposals to them.

Member States shall notify the Commission of the body or mediators referred to in the first paragraph no later than 7 June 2021. Where Member States have chosen to rely on mediation, the notification to the Commission shall at least include, when available, the source where relevant information on the mediators entrusted can be found.

CHAPTER 4

Works of visual art in the public domain

Article 17

Use of protected content by online_content-sharing_service_providers

1. Member States shall provide that an online_content-sharing_service_provider performs an act of communication to the public or an act of making available to the public for the purposes of this Directive when it gives the public access to copyright-protected works or other protected subject matter uploaded by its users.

An online_content-sharing_service_provider shall therefore obtain an authorisation from the rightholders referred to in Article 3(1) and (2) of Directive 2001/29/EC, for instance by concluding a licensing agreement, in order to communicate to the public or make available to the public works or other subject matter.

2. Member States shall provide that, where an online_content-sharing_service_provider obtains an authorisation, for instance by concluding a licensing agreement, that authorisation shall also cover acts carried out by users of the services falling within the scope of Article 3 of Directive 2001/29/EC when they are not acting on a commercial basis or where their activity does not generate significant revenues.

3. When an online_content-sharing_service_provider performs an act of communication to the public or an act of making available to the public under the conditions laid down in this Directive, the limitation of liability established in Article 14(1) of Directive 2000/31/EC shall not apply to the situations covered by this Article.

The first subparagraph of this paragraph shall not affect the possible application of Article 14(1) of Directive 2000/31/EC to those service providers for purposes falling outside the scope of this Directive.

4. If no authorisation is granted, online_content-sharing_service_providers shall be liable for unauthorised acts of communication to the public, including making available to the public, of copyright-protected works and other subject matter, unless the service providers demonstrate that they have:

(a)	made best efforts to obtain an authorisation, and

(b)	made, in accordance with high industry standards of professional diligence, best efforts to ensure the unavailability of specific works and other subject matter for which the rightholders have provided the service providers with the relevant and necessary information; and in any event

(c)	acted expeditiously, upon receiving a sufficiently substantiated notice from the rightholders, to disable access to, or to remove from their websites, the notified works or other subject matter, and made best efforts to prevent their future uploads in accordance with point (b).

5. In determining whether the service provider has complied with its obligations under paragraph 4, and in light of the principle of proportionality, the following elements, among others, shall be taken into account:

(a)	the type, the audience and the size of the service and the type of works or other subject matter uploaded by the users of the service; and

(b)	the availability of suitable and effective means and their cost for service providers.

6. Member States shall provide that, in respect of new online_content-sharing_service_providers the services of which have been available to the public in the Union for less than three years and which have an annual turnover below EUR 10 million, calculated in accordance with Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC (20), the conditions under the liability regime set out in paragraph 4 are limited to compliance with point (a) of paragraph 4 and to acting expeditiously, upon receiving a sufficiently substantiated notice, to disable access to the notified works or other subject matter or to remove those works or other subject matter from their websites.

Where the average number of monthly unique visitors of such service providers exceeds 5 million, calculated on the basis of the previous calendar year, they shall also demonstrate that they have made best efforts to prevent further uploads of the notified works and other subject matter for which the rightholders have provided relevant and necessary information.

7. The cooperation between online_content-sharing_service_providers and rightholders shall not result in the prevention of the availability of works or other subject matter uploaded by users, which do not infringe copyright and related rights, including where such works or other subject matter are covered by an exception or limitation.

Member States shall ensure that users in each Member State are able to rely on any of the following existing exceptions or limitations when uploading and making available content generated by users on online content-sharing services:

(a)	quotation, criticism, review;

(b)	use for the purpose of caricature, parody or pastiche.

8. The application of this Article shall not lead to any general monitoring obligation.

Member States shall provide that online_content-sharing_service_providers provide rightholders, at their request, with adequate information on the functioning of their practices with regard to the cooperation referred to in paragraph 4 and, where licensing agreements are concluded between service providers and rightholders, information on the use of content covered by the agreements.

9. Member States shall provide that online_content-sharing_service_providers put in place an effective and expeditious complaint and redress mechanism that is available to users of their services in the event of disputes over the disabling of access to, or the removal of, works or other subject matter uploaded by them.

Where rightholders request to have access to their specific works or other subject matter disabled or to have those works or other subject matter removed, they shall duly justify the reasons for their requests. Complaints submitted under the mechanism provided for in the first subparagraph shall be processed without undue delay, and decisions to disable access to or remove uploaded content shall be subject to human review. Member States shall also ensure that out-of-court redress mechanisms are available for the settlement of disputes. Such mechanisms shall enable disputes to be settled impartially and shall not deprive the user of the legal protection afforded by national law, without prejudice to the rights of users to have recourse to efficient judicial remedies. In particular, Member States shall ensure that users have access to a court or another relevant judicial authority to assert the use of an exception or limitation to copyright and related rights.

This Directive shall in no way affect legitimate uses, such as uses under exceptions or limitations provided for in Union law, and shall not lead to any identification of individual users nor to the processing of personal data, except in accordance with Directive 2002/58/EC and Regulation (EU) 2016/679.

Online content-sharing service providers shall inform their users in their terms and conditions that they can use works and other subject matter under exceptions or limitations to copyright and related rights provided for in Union law.

10. As of 6 June 2019 the Commission, in cooperation with the Member States, shall organise stakeholder dialogues to discuss best practices for cooperation between online_content-sharing_service_providers and rightholders. The Commission shall, in consultation with online_content-sharing_service_providers, rightholders, users' organisations and other relevant stakeholders, and taking into account the results of the stakeholder dialogues, issue guidance on the application of this Article, in particular regarding the cooperation referred to in paragraph 4. When discussing best practices, special account shall be taken, among other things, of the need to balance fundamental rights and of the use of exceptions and limitations. For the purpose of the stakeholder dialogues, users' organisations shall have access to adequate information from online_content-sharing_service_providers on the functioning of their practices with regard to paragraph 4.

CHAPTER 3

Fair remuneration in exploitation contracts of authors and performers

Article 19

Transparency obligation

1. Member States shall ensure that authors and performers receive on a regular basis, at least once a year, and taking into account the specificities of each sector, up to date, relevant and comprehensive information on the exploitation of their works and performances from the parties to whom they have licensed or transferred their rights, or their successors in title, in particular as regards modes of exploitation, all revenues generated and remuneration due.

2. Member States shall ensure that, where the rights referred to in paragraph 1 have subsequently been licensed, authors and performers or their representatives shall, at their request, receive from sub-licensees additional information, in the event that their first contractual counterpart does not hold all the information that would be necessary for the purposes of paragraph 1.

Where that additional information is requested, the first contractual counterpart of authors and performers shall provide information on the identity of those sub-licensees.

Member States may provide that any request to sub-licensees pursuant to the first subparagraph is made directly or indirectly through the contractual counterpart of the author or the performer.

3. The obligation set out in paragraph 1 shall be proportionate and effective in ensuring a high level of transparency in every sector. Member States may provide that in duly justified cases where the administrative burden resulting from the obligation set out in paragraph 1 would become disproportionate in the light of the revenues generated by the exploitation of the work or performance, the obligation is limited to the types and level of information that can reasonably be expected in such cases.

4. Member States may decide that the obligation set out in paragraph 1 of this Article does not apply when the contribution of the author or performer is not significant having regard to the overall work or performance, unless the author or performer demonstrates that he or she requires the information for the exercise of his or her rights under Article 20(1) and requests the information for that purpose.

5. Member States may provide that, for agreements subject to or based on collective bargaining agreements, the transparency rules of the relevant collective bargaining agreement are applicable, on condition that those rules meet the criteria provided for in paragraphs 1 to 4.

6. Where Article 18 of Directive 2014/26/EU is applicable, the obligation laid down in paragraph 1 of this Article shall not apply in respect of agreements concluded by entities defined in Article 3(a) and (b) of that Directive or by other entities subject to the national rules implementing that Directive.

Article 20

Contract adjustment mechanism

1. Member States shall ensure that, in the absence of an applicable collective bargaining agreement providing for a mechanism comparable to that set out in this Article, authors and performers or their representatives are entitled to claim additional, appropriate and fair remuneration from the party with whom they entered into a contract for the exploitation of their rights, or from the successors in title of such party, when the remuneration originally agreed turns out to be disproportionately low compared to all the subsequent relevant revenues derived from the exploitation of the works or performances.

2. Paragraph 1 of this Article shall not apply to agreements concluded by entities defined in Article 3(a) and (b) of Directive 2014/26/EU or by other entities that are already subject to the national rules implementing that Directive.

Article 27

Transitional provision

agreements for the licence or transfer of rights of authors and performers shall be subject to the transparency obligation set out in Article 19 as from 7 June 2022.

whereas

(23) Different arrangements, based on the implementation of the exception or limitation provided for in Directive 2001/29/EC or on licensing agreements covering further uses, are in place in a number of Member States in order to facilitate educational uses of works and other subject matter.
Such arrangements have usually been developed taking account of the needs of educational establishments and of different levels of education.
While it is essential to harmonise the scope of the new mandatory exception or limitation in relation to digital uses and cross-border teaching activities, the arrangements for implementation can vary from one Member State to another, to the extent that they do not hamper the effective application of the exception or limitation or cross-border uses. Member States should, for example, remain free to require that the use of works or other subject matter respect the moral rights of authors and performers. This should allow Member States to build on the existing arrangements concluded at national level.
In particular, Member States could decide to subject the application of the exception or limitation, fully or partially, to the availability of suitable licences, covering at least the same uses as those allowed under the exception or limitation.
Member States should ensure that where licences cover only partially the uses allowed under the exception or limitation, all the other uses remain subject to the exception or limitation.

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(45) Given the nature of some uses, together with the usually large amount of works or other subject matter involved, the transaction cost of individual rights clearance with every rightholder concerned is prohibitively high.
As a result, it is unlikely that, without effective collective licensing mechanisms, all the transactions in the areas concerned that are required to enable the use of such works or other subject matter would take place.
Extended collective licensing by collective management organisations and similar mechanisms can make it possible to conclude agreements in those areas where collective licensing based on an authorisation by rightholders does not provide an exhaustive solution for covering all works or other subject matter to be used.
Such mechanisms complement collective management of rights based on individual authorisation by rightholders, by providing full legal certainty to users in certain cases. At the same time, they provide an opportunity to rightholders to benefit from the legitimate use of their works.

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(51) Video-on-demand services have the potential to play a decisive role in the dissemination of audiovisual works across the Union.
However, the availability of such works, in particular European works, on video-on-demand services remains limited.
agreements on the online exploitation of such works can be difficult to conclude due to issues related to the licensing of rights. Such issues could, for instance, arise when the holder of the rights for a given territory has a low economic incentive to exploit a work online and does not license or holds back the online rights, which can lead to audiovisual works being unavailable on video-on-demand services. Other issues could relate to windows of exploitation.

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(52) To facilitate the licensing of rights in audiovisual works to video-on-demand services, Member States should be required to provide for a negotiation mechanism allowing parties willing to conclude an agreement to rely on the assistance of an impartial body or of one or more mediators. For that purpose, Member States should be allowed either to establish a new body or rely on an existing one that fulfils the conditions established by this Directive.
Member States should be able to designate one or more competent bodies or mediators. The body or the mediators should meet with the parties and help with the negotiations by providing professional, impartial and external advice.
Where a negotiation involves parties from different Member States and where those parties decide to rely on the negotiation mechanism, the parties should agree beforehand on the competent Member State.
The body or the mediators could meet with the parties to facilitate the start of negotiations or in the course of the negotiations to facilitate the conclusion of an agreement.
Participation in that negotiation mechanism and the subsequent conclusion of agreements should be voluntary and should not affect the parties' contractual freedom.
Member States should be free to decide on the specific functioning of the negotiation mechanism, including the timing and duration of the assistance to negotiations and the bearing of the costs. Member States should ensure that administrative and financial burdens remain proportionate to guarantee the efficiency of the negotiation mechanism.
Without it being an obligation for them, Member States should encourage dialogue between representative organisations.

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(60) Publishers, including those of press_publications, books or scientific publications and music publications, often operate on the basis of the transfer of authors' rights by means of contractual agreements or statutory provisions. In that context, publishers make an investment with a view to the exploitation of the works contained in their publications and can in some instances be deprived of revenues where such works are used under exceptions or limitations such as those for private copying and reprography, including the corresponding existing national schemes for reprography in the Member States, or under public lending schemes. In several Member States, compensation for uses under those exceptions or limitations is shared between authors and publishers. In order to take account of this situation and to improve legal certainty for all parties concerned, this Directive allows Member States that have existing schemes for the sharing of compensation between authors and publishers to maintain them.
That is particularly important for Member States that had such compensation-sharing mechanisms before 12 November 2015, although in other Member States compensation is not shared and is due solely to authors in accordance with national cultural policies. While this Directive should apply in a non-discriminatory way to all Member States, it should respect the traditions in this area and not oblige Member States that do not currently have such compensation-sharing schemes to introduce them.
It should not affect existing or future arrangements in Member States regarding remuneration in the context of public lending.

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(61) In recent years, the functioning of the online content market has gained in complexity.
Online content-sharing services providing access to a large amount of copyright-protected content uploaded by their users have become a main source of access to content online.
Online services are a means of providing wider access to cultural and creative works and offer great opportunities for cultural and creative industries to develop new business models. However, although they enable diversity and ease of access to content, they also generate challenges when copyright-protected content is uploaded without prior authorisation from rightholders. Legal uncertainty exists as to whether the providers of such services engage in copyright-relevant acts, and need to obtain authorisation from rightholders for content uploaded by their users who do not hold the relevant rights in the uploaded content, without prejudice to the application of exceptions and limitations provided for in Union law.
That uncertainty affects the ability of rightholders to determine whether, and under which conditions, their works and other subject matter are used, as well as their ability to obtain appropriate remuneration for such use.
It is therefore important to foster the development of the licensing market between rightholders and online_content-sharing_service_providers. Those licensing agreements should be fair and keep a reasonable balance between both parties. Rightholders should receive appropriate remuneration for the use of their works or other subject matter.
However, as contractual freedom should not be affected by those provisions, rightholders should not be obliged to give an authorisation or to conclude licensing agreements.

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(68) Online content-sharing service providers should be transparent with rightholders with regard to the steps taken in the context of cooperation.
As various actions could be undertaken by online_content-sharing_service_providers, they should provide rightholders, at the request of rightholders, with adequate information on the type of actions undertaken and the way in which they are undertaken.
Such information should be sufficiently specific to provide enough transparency to rightholders, without affecting business secrets of online_content-sharing_service_providers. Service providers should, however, not be required to provide rightholders with detailed and individualised information for each work or other subject matter identified.
That should be without prejudice to contractual arrangements, which could contain more specific provisions on the information to be provided where agreements are concluded between service providers and rightholders.

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(69) Where online_content-sharing_service_providers obtain authorisations, including through licensing agreements, for the use on their service of content uploaded by the users of the service, those authorisations should also cover the copyright relevant acts in respect of uploads by users within the scope of the authorisation granted to the service providers, but only in cases where those users act for non-commercial purposes, such as sharing their content without any profit-making purpose, or where the revenue generated by their uploads is not significant in relation to the copyright relevant acts of the users covered by such authorisations. Where rightholders have explicitly authorised users to upload and make available works or other subject matter on an online content-sharing service, the act of communication to the public of the service provider is authorised within the scope of the authorisation granted by the rightholder.
However, there should be no presumption in favour of online_content-sharing_service_providers that their users have cleared all relevant rights.

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(77) When implementing the transparency obligation provided for in this Directive, Member States should take into account the specificities of different content sectors, such as those of the music sector, the audiovisual sector and the publishing sector, and all relevant stakeholders should be involved when deciding on such sector-specific obligations. Where relevant, the significance of the contribution of authors and performers to the overall work or performance should also be considered.
Collective bargaining should be considered as an option for the relevant stakeholders to reach an agreement regarding transparency.
Such agreements should ensure that authors and performers have the same level of transparency as or a higher level of transparency than the minimum requirements provided for in this Directive.
To enable the adaptation of existing reporting practices to the transparency obligation, a transitional period should be provided for.
It should not be necessary to apply the transparency obligation in respect of agreements concluded between rightholders and collective management organisations, independent management entities or other entities subject to the national rules implementing Directive 2014/26/EU, as those organisations or entities are already subject to transparency obligations under Article 18 of Directive 2014/26/EU.
Article 18 of Directive 2014/26/EU applies to organisations that manage copyright or related rights on behalf of more than one rightholder for the collective benefit of those rightholders. However, individually negotiated agreements concluded between rightholders and those of their contractual counterparts who act in their own interest should be subject to the transparency obligation provided for in this Directive.

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(81) The provisions regarding transparency, contract adjustment mechanisms and alternative dispute resolution procedures laid down in this Directive should be of a mandatory nature, and parties should not be able to derogate from those provisions, whether in contracts between authors, performers and their contractual counterparts, or in agreements between those counterparts and third parties, such as non-disclosure agreements.
As a consequence, Article 3(4) of Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council (17) should apply to the effect that, where all other elements relevant to the situation at the time of the choice of applicable law are located in one or more Member States, the parties' choice of applicable law other than that of a Member State does not prejudice the application of the provisions regarding transparency, contract adjustment mechanisms and alternative dispute resolution procedures laid down in this Directive, as implemented in the Member State of the forum.

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keyboard_tab Diritto d'autore 2019/0790 EN

Diritto d'autore 2019/0790 EN