Fine-Tuning European Copyright Law to Strike a Balance between the Rights of Owners and Users

Abstract

Directive 2001/29 (the EU Copyright Directive) aims to repress copyright infringement in the digital environment through the harmonisation of copyright discipline and the safeguard of technological protection measures (TPMs). It claims that this harmonisation is instrumental to the protection of the exclusive rights of the owners while granting protection to the fundamental rights of the public, such as freedom of information and the circulation of culture. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, by analysing the Directive’s national implementation in the 27 Member States of the European Union, it assesses the extent to which the Directive attained the intended harmonisation and whether this is effective to achieve the balance of rights. Secondly, after the identification of areas of dysfunction, the paper proposes an alternative strategy to reach a harmonisation able to strike a better balance between the rights of owners and users.