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The recent ‘forward-looking’ Intellectual Property Package of the EU has at its core the term extension of copyright. Earlier, the respective policy unit commissioned a study into this very question, which deals with the topic of term extension in detail and, on the basis of a thorough
legal and economic analysis, rejects the main arguments made in favour of an extension (1). However, the EU has chosen not to mention this study in the Explanatory Memorandum. Quite rightly, the copyright experts who carried out the study, remind the EU in an Open Letter, that ‘the Commission’s obscuration of the IViR studies and its failure to confront the critical arguments made therein seem to reveal an intention to mislead the Council and the Parliament, as well as the citizens of the European Union.’

(1) Study carried out by the Institute for Information Law for the European Commission (DG Internal Market). Chapters 1 and 2 describe and examine the existing ‘acquis communautaire’ in the field of copyright and related (neighbouring) rights, with special focus on inconsistencies and unclarities. Chapters 3-6 deal with distinct issues that were identified a priori by the European Commission as meriting special attention: possible extension of the term of protection of phonograms (Chapter 3), possible alignment of the term of protection of co-written musical works (Chapter 4), the problems connected to multiple copyright ownership, including the issue of ‘orphan works’ (Chapter 5), and copyright awareness among consumers (Chapter 6). Chapter 7 provides an overall assessment of the benefits and drawbacks of the fifteen years of harmonisation of copyright and related rights in the EU and dwells on regulatory alternatives: The Recasting of Copyright & Related Rights for the Knowledge Economy